MYSTERY OF THE BABY WASHED UP AT HORSE LANE
Girl was found by local man Patrick Lynch
80 years ago, a startling discovery was made and I wonder was this case ever advanced.
Patrick Lynch, a fisherman from Horse Lane on Trinity Street, made a gruesome discovery, when leaving his boat on the Trinity Street side of the Boyne.
Lying at the side of the river, and exposed by the receding tide, he found the partly decomposed body of a female infant, which appeared to have been in the water for some considerable time. The body was taken to the Garda Barracks where an inquest was held by Doctor W. A. Bradley, Coroner for Drogheda and South Louth. without a jury.
Dr. P. J. Murray said he had examined the body, which was that of a full-term female infant. It must have been in the water for some months as putrefaction was very much advanced, so that it was impossible to sat if the child was alive when entering the water or what the cause of death was.
The left femur and left teg, the right leg and the left forearm were missing.
Patrick Lynch said that he was coming from the boat on the Trinity Street side of the River Boyne to his own house, and he saw what appeared to be the remains of a dog about two yards from the water’s edge. He went up to it and turned it over with his boot. It then appeared to him to be the remains of a baby. He then went for John Kenny, Horse Lane, and they both lifted it up and examined it, and satisfied themselves that it was the remains of a baby. There was no covering or anything tied to the remains.
The Coroner returned a verdict in accordance with the evidence given by Dr. Murray, that the child died from causes that could not definitely be stated.