‘Hen House Boy’: A story of neglect that shocked Ireland
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You're listening to the Indo Daily, now a special episode from our sister podcast, The Bell Tell. In September 1956, a crosscar schoolboy made a shocking discovery. He peered into a hen house only to see a pair of human eyes looking back. The eyes belong to seven year old Kevin Hoffpenny, but he's been better known ever since as the Hanhouse Boy.
Even the little boys themselves claim that they'd find like a Tarzan. They've discovered a little boy and you think he's raised by chickens, and therefore adopts the mannerisms of a chicken.
Kevin had been robbed of human interaction for his whole life until that point and couldn't walk properly or speak.
He had sort of long claw-like nails, his legs were bowed due to the lack of nutrients and sunlight, and he actually moved around in what witnesses at the time claimed to be like a hen-like manner.
The case shocked the community and his mother, Margaret, who was a widow, was arrested and pleaded guilty to neglect.
The judge is very, very pointed in his remarks and said that Kevin lacked sunlight. And the judge literally specifically said that he was deprived of something that God gave him.
So why did she lock Kevin away? What effect did it have on him, and what happened to him in the end? To tell the story of the Ham House boy, I'm joined by our reporter Curtis Raid. Curtis Reed, welcome back to the Bell Tower.
Thank you very much, Olivia.
This is a long story and a story which actually it wasn't easy to find details on. It wasn't actually a hen house, it was an outhouse, according to the mother. But who was the hen house boy?
Yeah. So, like you said, this is a very unusual, strange story. And it's probably a story that people will be familiar with and probably heard as some sort of like urban legend. But essentially, Hen House Boy was a young boy that was discovered living in a hen house in Crossgar, County Down, where his mother had kept him since birth. So this all happened in the nineteen fifties, nineteen fifty-six specifically, and he was nicknamed in the media. media as hen house boy or the more derogatory term of chicken boy, and his name was Kevin Halfpenny, and he was aged seven years old. He was described as having very various vulnerabilities, he was described as deformed in the language that was used then, he was unable to speak, and that he only made hen like sounds.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–6:54
2
What is the background of the “Hen House Boy” case and how was Kevin Halfpenny first discovered?
6:54–10:06
3
How did Kevin’s physical condition and behavior reflect years of neglect in the hen house?
10:06–12:51
4
Why did Margaret Halfpenny keep her son locked away and what was her stated justification?
12:51–14:54
5
Who were the local boys that found Kevin and what did they report to the authorities?
14:54–17:43
6
What legal charges were brought against Margaret Halfpenny and how did her defence team argue the case?
17:43–24:08
7
What was the outcome of the trial – sentencing, judge’s remarks and medical testimony?
24:08–26:36
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Indo Daily
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