Ann Lovett
| Ann Lovett | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1968 |
| Died | 31 January 1984 (age 15) Granard, County Longford, Ireland |
| Cause of death | postpartum haemorrhage |
| Resting place | Granardkill Graveyard |
| Children | Stillborn son |
| Parent(s) | Diarmuid Lovett Patricia Lovett |
Ann Lovett (1968 – 31 January 1984) was a 15-year-old schoolgirl from Granard, County Longford, Ireland who died giving birth beside a grotto on 31 January 1984. Her baby son died at the same time and the story of her death played a huge part in a seminal national debate in the country at the time on women giving birth outside marriage.
Tuesday, 31 January 1984 was a cold, wet, winter's day in Granard, County Longford. That afternoon, the fifteen-year-old school girl left her 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. It was here beneath the statue of Our Lady, that she gave birth, alone, to her infant son.
At around 4 pm that day some children on their way home from school saw Ann's schoolbag on the ground and discovered her lying in the Grotto. They alerted a passing farmer who rushed to the nearby priest's house to inform him of the chilling discovery of Ann and her already deceased baby in the adjacent grotto. The priest's response to his request for help was; "It's a doctor you need".
Ann, still alive but hemorrhaging heavily, was carried to the house of the Parish Priest from where a doctor was phoned. She was then driven in the doctor's car to her parents house in the centre of the town. By the point an ambulance arrived it was already too late.
Ann Lovett and her child were quietly buried three days later in Granardkill cemetery.
A quarter of a century on from a tragedy that shocked the nation, many questions remain unanswered about the deaths of Ann Lovett and her infant child.
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".
With the words "Nothing terribly exciting there", the newspaper was cast down on the studio floor by the Late Late Show host, Gay Byrne.
This moment marked the first introduction the world had to the story of Ann Lovett and her newborn child.
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. The next day Granard was swamped with national and international media.
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Wikipedia