Within three days they had buried both of them near the very spot. What were these facts that had come to light? I remember how it fanned out like an umbrella until it covered the town. People now are afraid to be the first one to speak out. Mary Maguire, Ann Lovett's best friend at the inquest. It sounds ludicrous in this modern day and age where you have whistleblowers, but thats just the way it is., McGee wrote a controversial front page editorial, Ann Lovetts Decision; two sentences of which read, Who is to say Ann Lovett did not die happy? It was a cold and wet day. She has never said much publicly about the tragedy, but spoke out on the 20th anniversary of Anns death in a letter to a newspaper in which she referred to Granards feelings of immense loss and sadness and criticised the insensitive comment the town and its people had endured. The 2015 Poetry Competition "A Poem for Ireland" shortlisted the 1991, This page was last edited on 1 February 2023, at 12:19. What followed will be familiar to anyone who knows about rural Ireland in the 1980s. It is a little-known fact that Ann's son was given the posthumous baptismal name of Pat. It was very morose . We may have protected a childs rights, but we neglected to think of the mothers. I cant remember a single thing about how she phrased it, just that Ann was dead. Extensive efforts by The Irish Times to determine what, if any, archival documents relating to Ann Lovett are held in the Departments of Health, Justice, or Education, have yielded no results. I never knew. After that morning assembly in the gym, students were expected to return to class. Lancaster Lovett Jr. was born on 18 April 1609, in Astwell with Falcutt, Northamptonshire, England as the son of Lancaster Lovett Sr and Mrs Lovett. The Lovett family shut their pub and their front door, and did not open either to reporters. She said it was difficult to ascertain whether Ann had hypothermia and exposure, or haemorrhage. She was gregarious'. I dont see that we were all backwards men in Granard. What happened to Ann was such a big thing at the time, and very, very, very unusual., Carl Sullivan, who was a student in the school at the time, and who now runs a photography business in Longford, also recalls the atmosphere in the school during those days. Our family loved Nay for who he was. Handwritten notes of that meeting were taken on a pink slip by the assistant secretary to the government, with various words crossed out, as if there was some uncertainty about what to write. At 5.55pm, Ann was admitted to Mullingar hospital, and it was noted her lips and fingertips were white on arrival; a medical state called cyanosis. He was also a carpenter, but was unemployed and didnt appear to have adjusted successfully to the role of publican. She was dead before it arrived. John Aidan Byrne was a reporter at the time for the now defunct Longford News. When Reverend David Wilder gets a letter from the daughter he's never known, he realizes that an old promise is a debt he might not be able to repay. I thought she might have stayed on to help out with the school magazine.. The Lovetts youngest son, Stephen, was also at home and the pair of them went at once to the grotto. She had a kind of a big jacket on her, but baggy clothes were the style at the time. She was found several hours later by some boys on their way home from school, the stillborn infant wrapped in his mothers coat and Ann near death from cold and shock. Patricia Lovett lost another daughter, 14-year-old Patricia, to an overdose of prescription drugs just three months after she buried Ann, and her husband, Diarmuid, died of a stroke three years later, so local people are loathe to add to her suffering. The priest's response to his request for help was; "It's a doctor you need".[11]. The story broke some days later, with considerable interest from the media. I wasnt shocked, as I had had my doubts. Two days previously, she had told Mary she had a pain in her stomach. I thought she was funny, she was nice looking, she was friendly. Ann did not appear home for lunch either. I remember when they were taking the coffin out of the hearse, there was a collective gasp . It remains a painful, shameful episode in the countrys social history. Sarah Ann Lovett. There was a chip shop in the middle of the town. Theres a silence on the edge of Irish life that I associate with graveyards. People Projects Discussions Surnames On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The Irish Times made sustained attempts to contact a number of people associated with this story. There are serious issues around sex education, in that its so inconsistent and so uneven in terms of how and where its implemented, he says. I was bowled over. Great personal tragedy [word crossed out] which shld not be compounded by [word crossed out] particular kinds of [word public crossed out] attention., Handwritten note from government meeting on February 7th, 1984, about the Ann Lovett case. Absolutely bowled over, he told Rosita Boland of the first time he met Lovett. Of Ann, she said, We were like sisters. A colleague got an anonymous call about Ann Lovett's death, but it as too late for that edition of the weekly paper, which had already gone to press. I was almost the same age as her when the 15-year-old schoolgirl from Granard, Co Longford, stepped out of her classroom one afternoon and went for a walk. Her death changed the way I thought about Ireland, about what kind of people we were. Ann Rose Lovett died shortly afterwards, aged 15 years, nine months and 25 days. Death: May 17, 1907 (72-73) Youngs Creek, Whitley Co, KY. What teachers will say is that its a crowded curriculum, they will say its difficult to teach, and it certainly needs a different approach to teaching standard subjects. Irish Examiner Ltd, Linn Dubh, Assumption Road, Blackpool, Cork. He was full term and weighed 6 pounds. According to McDonnell, Fr Quinn then brought him to the palace of Dr Colm O'Reilly, then Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, who wanted to know what he had told the police. Clive, IA DANIEL LOVETT OBITUARY Daniel "Danny" P. Lovett, 36 passed away on January 22, 2023. That Ann was pregnant and not married. The Longford Leader, in its first report on the story on February 10th, asked the same question: who knew? It got to the point she was staying with me four or five nights of the week, every week, sometimes going home at 4am or 7am, and I would say virtually everybody in Granard knew that at the time.. In Byrnes news report at the time, he wrote, If anyone in Granard stands indicted, it is the scandal-givers, the nod-and-wink moralisers who knew the girls plight and cracked jokes about it.. She died shortly after being brought to hospital, was buried a few days later and became an international news story before the flowers on her grave had begun to wither. Ann and her baby were buried together in Granardkill graveyard. . Main Street Granard is anchored at one end by the Cnoc Mhuire secondary school, and by St Marys church on an small hill at the other end. The course of action to be followed by him was agreed.. 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By the following day, Granard was the focus of intense media attention. Ann Lovetts mother saw her in the bathroom at about 8am. She nearly always had her hair tied up in loads and loads of little plaits. It started to get serious after that, McDonnell said. The father of the child didnt come forward, then or ever. The circumstances of this tragedy reflect an element of mystery on everyones part.. Locals would not speak to the press. Both Ann and her sister Patricia attended the Cnoc Mhuire secondary school in the town. The former boyfriend of Ann Lovett, the 15-year-old Irish schoolgirl who died in childbirth in a church grotto in Granard, Co. Longford, in 1984, has spoken out for the first time about their relationship and her death. The repercussions of her death continue to resonate powerfully in Irish society, more than three decades later. The reduction is not, as some might presume, made up for by a rise in the number of abortions, as the number of Irish teenagers opting for termination has always been very low and halved over the 10 years to 2012. Had the tragic remains of that baby been found today, the State would immediately have taken DNA, and it would have been preserved for any future inquiry.. The other concern is access to contraception. A Catholic grotto to Virgin Mary, similar to the one Ann Lovett died beneath alone and shamed in childbirth. Alarmed, they raced to the scene. Brief Life History of Sarah Ann . It was now raining heavily, and whether she realised it or not, Ann was either in, or approaching, the early stages of labour. A wall of silence descended that would not lift. Photograph: Derek Speirs. She was a lively, intelligent girl with artistic talent, her headmistress said. Ann Lovett Anne Lovett photography, art, encaustics, books Main menu Ann was still conscious. There were and still are more questions than answers surrounding the case. It was Byrne who discovered that the baby boy had been baptised with the name of Pat. And thats when the penny dropped for me. And no way would she have gone to the Palms on her own, to have a baby, because she could have asked anybody for help, anybody, and they would have helped her. They couldn't be ignored."[13]. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons. She appeared to be her normal self, she would later tell the inquest. I took stock of her then. Anybody would have done that. It is astonishing that hardly any named person from the reports at the time has since said anything about it. A report published this week by the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland on alcohol, sexual activity, and consent also found worrying evidence that teenagers struggle to assert themselves in resisting pressure to have sex, have a poor understanding of what constitutes consent, and are made extremely vulnerable by their overwhelming tendency to link sex with alcohol. He rushed to the grotto, at which point the canon and Tony Kelly were arriving on the scene. At his home in south Dublin, he examines a photograph of this document, which was released as a State Paper in 2016. If I had known, I would have made sure that she would have got proper care and assistance. She wept as her statement was read out. Some names in this report have been changed. Granard garda were represented by Insp Patrick J Colleran. She was a great parish worker and very religious. He had tried hard to get people to talk. Asked for comment for this current anniversary, she declined and urged a re-reading of her 2004 remarks. It was up to you to grasp the implications. Irish American woman's 50-year-old cold case murder finally solved, WATCH: Irish language rendition of Ed Sheerans Shape of You is incredible, The Irish American woman who became America's first supermodel, Ireland and Northern Ireland pols react after Northern Ireland Protocol "breakthrough", Barry Keoghan replaces Paul Mescal in new Irish drama "Bring Them Down", In praise of Ireland's exciting and diverse future. Everyone wanted to know how a girl from a family of nine siblings in a town of barely a 1,000 people could have carried a baby to term without anyone finding out, if indeed her pregnancy was the secret the community claimed it to be. Back at the Copper Pot, Patricia Lovett had come home and out on Main Street word was rapidly spreading about what the three boys had seen at the grotto. I almost had it happen to me. In the 1980s when you had done something, or become someone, or had something happen to you that your community considered unspeakable, you could be escorted to the edge of town where a huge silence would fall around you. [1], McDonnell alleged that Granard priest, Fr Quinn, upon learning of the letter, demanded to read it, and then told McDonnell to burn it because it would destroy the town if its contents became known. [1], According to McDonnell, their close and loving relationship had foundered when Lovett had found it difficult to continue, after she had come to him one night in late April 1983, apparently having suffered a serious assault and beating. The secret of what happened is with that little girl in the grave, he said. Ann Lovett and her child were quietly buried three days later in Granardkill cemetery. Harriet Davenport Lovett Taft 1801 - 1858 . He was a loving and fun person. We didnt know what to say., I know some other students were unhappy with the way the nuns handled it. She was very, very outgoing, very bubbly, and a bit of a tomboy. In the ensuing public debate, the tragic events at Granard became symbolic of the emerging clash between church and state. Love Irish history? Nine people had now witnessed a scene at the Granard grotto which none of them were ever likely to forget. [3] Her baby son died at the same time and the story of her death played a huge part in a seminal national debate on women giving birth outside marriage.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. But Ann Lovett did not go to school that day, and was apparently not missed by either teachers or classmates. Another focus of the IFPAs work is helping parents educate their children about sex and sexuality. Gallagher raced back across the road again to call for a doctor. He thought Ann had gone to school as normal. McDonnell did not know for sure whether the child Ann had borne had been his, but he had lived with the tragic outcome for the rest of his life. Chief executive Denis J Doherty told the media that Ann had not accessed any of their services: the public health nurse, social workers, or community welfare officers. Summary. Ann Lovett is after dying, they told her bluntly. Now retired and a member of Granard Town Council, he believes the towns reputation suffered unfairly. Gemma Hussey, now 79, then minister for education, tells The Irish Times she is not aware of any department report at the time in connection to Ann Lovett's case. [1] The alleged letter, written by Ann, on two sheets of paper, explained that she had loved him dearly, and was sorry for doing what she was going to do; the reason being that nobody would believe he was the father of her child. Momentarily there were signs of recovery, but almost immediately she stopped breathing, said Dr Skelly. The complexities of relationships, relationship failure, and the right to move on from it, has been acknowledged by the introduction of divorce. The next day Granard was swamped with national and international media. Id broach the subject and shed laugh it off, or shed say, shed just put on a bit of weight, and she was embarrassed.. That was the first I had heard of it. We were told the news in the gym, by the principal. . They did however give him one of Ann's drawings, which she had made to elicit contributions to the school magazine, and which the Longford Leader carried on its front page that week. It was obvious what she was going to do. It was then 4.14pm, and Gallagher phoned the local doctor, Dr Tom Donoghue, who was in his surgery. I carry it with me like a tattoo, as does every other Irish person who lived through those times. On Saturday night, 4 February 1984, Ireland's most popular television show was coming to an end, when the host read this headline from the next day's Sunday Tribune newspaper: "Girl, 15, Dies Giving Birth In A Field". Irish American woman's 50-year-old cold case murder finally solved, WATCH: Irish language rendition of Ed Sheerans Shape of You is incredible, The Irish American woman who became America's first supermodel, Ireland and Northern Ireland pols react after Northern Ireland Protocol "breakthrough", Barry Keoghan replaces Paul Mescal in new Irish drama "Bring Them Down", In praise of Ireland's exciting and diverse future. Contributors to this documentary include Emily O'Reilly, Kevin O'Connor and people from Granard. Twelve years after Ann's death, Lorelei Harris, a producer on the Gay Byrne programme, decided to make a radio documentary on the letters sent to the show in the immediate aftermath of the Granard tragedy. Isnt it funny how the men always get away with it?. Niall Behan, CEO of the Irish Family Planning Association, echoes those concerns, particularly around sex education which, while mandatory in schools, is of varying quality. At around 4pm that day some children on their way home from school saw Ann's schoolbag on the ground and discovered her lying in the Grotto. Jim Gray was there on that day when Sr Plunkett read her statement. Ann Lovett, 15, died after giving birth in a churchyard grotto beneath a statue of the Virgin Mary on January 31, 1984. However, a fertility rate of 12 is still quite high by OECD standards. Ann was an intelligent and bright girl who took an active part in school life and was interested in her studies. Thats what I feel. 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"There's obviously a complete omert on the thing, and nobody wants to talk about it. WATCH: This St. Patrick's Day flash mob is still one of our favorites! Thats all I could say really. 34 years ago today, Ann Lovett died after giving birth at a grotto in Granard. Ann was always messing about, always having the craic, he said. So the ban had passed and yet here we all were, with teenagers having babies in graveyards alone and uncomforted and no one anywhere to help them. The headline on Emily OReillys report in the Sunday Tribune, on Sunday, February 5th, 1984, The Irish Times front pages story about Ann Lovett's death on Monday, February 6th, 1984. Two local men, retired army officer Pat Scanlon, and his friend Pat Maguire, told her about the rumours of pregnancy going around the town months before Ann died. Husband of Francis Mary Jane Keighran and Eleanor Marion Keighran. Meanwhile, the three boys had again run out into the road and knocked at the door of a nearby house. There just seemed to be this numbing thing: please go away, and take the story away with you.. Female 11 February 1830-7 August 1874 L11S-H7H. Ann took the scissors out of her schoolbag, leaving the bag near the entrance. As their relationship intensified after her 14th birthday, Lovett began to stay at his home several times a week. The Wikipedia article is quite short, and well worth reading. The Netherlands, which has the lowest rate, is at just 3.5. It was here that the father of one of the schools students admitted to Byrne, while remaining anonymous, that his daughter had told him some months earlier about Ann Lovetts pregnancy. She was fun to be with; a fun person to be in the company of.. Photograph: Getty Images/INM, Mary Maguire, the friend in whom Ann confided, also gave evidence. It was conducted at the Westmeath County Council building in Mullingar, and the public gallery was full. It was like love at first sight. I wrote and sold literary short stories, personal essays, journalism, and poetry. It was still raining heavily, and dusk was beginning to fall. Step into a world of glamour at Dublin's most stylish townhouse, Number 31, The evolution of St. Patricks Day - why we celebrate. Husband of Alice Lane and Katherine Prouz. I asked the girl her name and she attempted to answer, but I couldnt make out what she said, Sr Damien said. Retired community worker Sr Maeve Brady, a member of the Mercy Order in Granard and a friend of Mrs Lovett, expresses much the same view. The first most people became aware of the death of Ann Lovett and her baby was after O'Reilly's report featured on the front page of the the Sunday Tribune on February 5th, two days after her funeral. I had a little hope for her, but not much. Dr Donoghue immediately called an ambulance, which had to come from Mullingar hospital, 42 kilometres away. On April 22nd, 1984, less than three months after Ann died, her sister Patricia, aged 14, died by suicide. Granard people quickly stopped talking to the media: a silence which continues to this day. I sometimes think that Ann Lovetts name has been lost to time now, but Ive thought about her a lot over the decades. Being Irish teenagers of the era they alerted the first authority figure they could find, which in this case was a passing farmer. . On Tuesday, February 7th, Sr Maria Plunkett, principal of Cnoc Mhuire, gave a public statement. GEDCOM Note Was maidservant of Deacon Valentine HIll, admitted church 7 JUL 1644. From the Examiner: Everyone wanted to know . She looks like so many of my friends from the 1980s; she looks like me. Genealogy profile for Anne Wyke. Subsequent enquiries by the Garda, the Department of Education and the Midlands Health Board have yet to be published leaving the tragic events of that day and the circumstances that forced a young girl to leave her classroom on a cold, wet winters day to give birth alone in a grotto, still shrouded in uncertainty. It was not quite immediate business as usual, but it was definitely a get-back-to-work kind of thing, Michael says. She was elsewhere in Main Street, grocery shopping. Nuala Ledwith, who lived three miles outside Granard, Co Longford, at the time, is talking about the removal of Ann Lovett and her stillborn son to St Marys Church in Granard on Thursday, February 2nd, 1984. They heard moaning coming from the grotto, and they discovered Ann lying on her back and the dead baby nearby. Gray can't prove it, but he believes the call came from a garda in Granard, where there was a rural station. It certainly wasnt the weather for an afternoon stroll. This all feels like yesterday, even though 1984 was more than 35 years ago. Copyright 2023 Irish Studio LLC All rights reserved. Her newborn son died as well. Lily considers the Lovett family were shunned by people in Granard after Ann died. I think it is completely unusual that nobody would not have noticed she was nine months pregnant., He heard from the school rumour mill that it was suspected Ann had had an older boyfriend: some seven or eight years older. That was the first I had heard of it. They came to me, and told me things, including that story about the teacher.. The inquest into the deaths of Ann and Pat Lovett was held at 3pm on February 21st, 1984. She seemed happy in school and gave no indication of being under stress. The feeling that the town is still being judged remains and there is a strong instinct to protect Anns mother, Patricia, who still lives there. They did not. He is uncomfortable discussing that editorial now. A phonecall had been made to the Dublin newspaper by an anonymous caller from Granard and the story, broken in the Sunday Tribune by Emily O'Reilly, drew the attention of the world to the tragic incident. It is difficult to express how the staff feel on this sad and tragic occasion. Born in 2 Feb 1886 and died in 20 May 1976 Paso Robles, California Cora Ann Lovett Simmons Emily O'Reilly, then a reporter with the Sunday Tribune, was assigned the story. In the afternoon of Tuesday, 31 January 1984 in Granard, County Longford, fifteen-year-old Ann Lovett left her Catholic Cnoc Mhuire Secondary School and made her way to a Grotto dedicated to the Virgin Mary at the top of her small hometown in the Irish midlands. According to the HSEs Crisis Pregnancy Programme, the fertility rate among girls aged 15-19 was around 23 for every 1,000 in that age group, a figure that has fallen to 12. I thought she was going to seek help., Dr Marie Skelly, the obstetrician who had attended Ann in Mullingar hospital, told the inquest that I have known of five certain cases where pregnancy was concealed right up to the time of birth, even from people in the same house and I have known of two that were concealed from people sharing a room with the pregnant woman.. Just 15 years old, Ann left class at the Mercy College in Granard, Co Longford, during a wet and windy lunchtime on Jan 31, 1984, made her way to the local grotto and gave birth to a baby boy under the watch of a statue of the Virgin Mary. Anne had 5 siblings: Murray Andrew Lovett, Marjory Alma Sykes (born Lovett) and 3 other siblings. Diarmuid Lovett was phoned from the hospital at about 7pm to tell him that Ann was dead. I knocked on doors and people said they didnt know the Lovetts at all. There was a pub down the town, Phil Smiths, which had a pool table in a backroom, and there was the pool hall next door. Had we known about Anns pregnancy, we would have taken her with understanding and compassion, as would be normal practice. They were hit with an absolute avalanche of media coverage. Everyone ran for cover is the best description. Is the education system reaching out to them enough so that they can make informed choices about their sexual activity, as opposed to uninformed or pressurised choices, which in some cases, as the report examines, leads to sexual violence and rape?. Ann Lovett, aged 15, was found dead beneath a statue of the Virgin Mary. Some made even darker allegations. Who is to say she has not fulfilled her role in life as God decreed?. Jennifer Ann (Gutknecht) LaFond, 53, of Wellington passed away Wednesday, July 1, 2020 at her home.