A History of Sexuality In Ireland [2]: The Nineteen Eighties

05 September 2009, 14:52

Tuesday, January 31st, 1984; it was a day like any other in the town of Granard, Co. Longford. A bleak, cold winter’s day, and the memories of the Christmas holidays just passed were fading quickly. For the two young lads stuck in the cold damp classroom in the local secondary school, it seemed like an eternity before the bell signalling the end of the day’s lessons would ring. But ring it did; they were finally out of there.

Their route home took them past the little lane-way that led up to the local holy grotto. Like the thousands of other holy grottos situated around Ireland, this one is set in a remote field, near a church, and is dominated by a statue of the Virgin Mary.
Unlike a lot of grottos, however, this one also had a second statue, that of the other Mary, the non-virgin Mary, the one who did have sex. Here, Mary Magdalene kneels; prostrate in her sins of the flesh, begging forgiveness from the Virgin who looms gracefully above; she begs forgiveness from this, the other Holy and Venerated Mary, the one who did not have sex.

The two lads had no intention of going into the grotto, engrossed as they were in getting home out of the cold, wet and windy weather. But they were stopped in their tracks.
Beaming out like a strange bright beacon half way up the muddy path to the grotto there lay a red schoolbag. Abandoned it seemed, with books spilling out of it into the muck, as if someone had dropped it in their hurry to get up to the grotto.
Curious, the two lads made their way up the puddle-strewn path. And as they rounded the trees at the top of the lane and came into full view of the grotto, a sight met their eyes that surely neither of these young men will ever forget.
Below the statues of the two Marys, one in supplication to the other, was sprawled a third female figure. But this was no stone statue. This was a real woman, with beating heart, made not of stone like the statues, but of flesh and blood.
And blood there was plenty of.
For there before the two lads lay the half-naked figure of 15 year old Ann Lovett, whimpering in shock and pain, gritting her teeth through tears, delirious and mumbling. Beside Ann, in a pool of blood, lay her still-born baby boy which she had just delivered, alone and unaided, there below the statue of the Virgin. Beside the dead child lay its placenta, severed from Ann’s body by a pair of scissors she had been carrying around in her school bag for several weeks now, in preparation for this very event.

Ann Lovett died shortly afterwards, from shock, in the local hospital.
She and her still-born boy were buried within a few days and nobody, outside of the closed community of Granard, would have known about her death had not one local man made an anonymous phone call to the Sunday Tribune offices.

Ann Lovett’s death (and short life) raised some serious questions about teenage sexuality and unplanned pregnancies in Ireland.
The nation was outraged. Telephone lines to various radio and tv shows were blocked with angry and confused callers.
How could a fifteen year old girl’s pregnancy go unnoticed, especially in a town as small as Granard ? How could Ann Lovett, described by locals as a ‘lively lass’, be so terrified of her pregnancy that she chose to give birth, on a bleak and cold winter’s day, out in the open, in a field, with not a soul to help her? Was this not “modern” Ireland? Moving into the last 15 years of the twentieth century? The Lovett family retreated behind closed doors, refusing to answer the phone or the many notes of enquiry that reporters and journalists pushed under their door (to this day, the remaining family members still won’t speak about it). The nuns who ran the school, after initially confirming the details of the case on the phone to the Sunday Tribune, then clammed up with a very firm ‘no further comment’.

The journalists who arrived in Granard were shunned, spat at on the street and told to ‘go home’ and to ‘mind your own business.’
In the local pub, late at night however, tongues loosened and people began to talk. There had been suspicions for a long time that Ann might be pregnant, and, of course, speculation as to whom the father might be.
She had often been seen leaving the home of one particular local lad, either very late at night or very early in the morning.
Her best friend came forth and revealed that Ann had disclosed the pregnancy to her, but had sworn her to secrecy. It had been, it seems, a local, but hushed and whispered, talking point. Everybody knew about it. Everybody assumed somebody else was doing something about it.
But nobody was.

All of the questions can be summed up in just one word: Why?

The answer to this 'why' lies in the blatantly obvious symbolism of where Ann gave birth.

There, in painful labour, prostrate beneath the Holy Virgin - a woman who was so bound up in Irish imaginings of 'virtuous and true womanhood' that she didn't need to have sex to bring forth a son - Ann Lovett, a woman who definitely did have sex to bring forth her son, ended her short life of fifteen summers, forced to give birth in an open field, sent there by a church and community, all of whom supposed that someone else was doing something about it.

Let us never forget Ann Lovett.

Blah 5 September 2009 @ 15:10 Excellent blog. It perfectly capture the mind of the times. It is funny that people see the Virgin Mary as the woman who never had sex. She was in "Catholic" fact the "virgin mother" of Jesus. But she was also the mother of James, son of Joseph. What some religious zealots forget too, is that the "holy family" was a recomposed family! Joseph was only Jesus's step-father if the religious dogma is to be believed...

Intrepid 5 September 2009 @ 15:11 Indeed. May she Rest in Peace. This is a very sad indictment of what was wrong with Ireland. (And still is, in some parts of the country)

Riotousned 5 September 2009 @ 15:26 great blog.i vaugly remember that story.it really was a sign of that time.the sad thing is as intrepid pointed out,its still going on in rural areas.it should be talked about far more.

Thomas 5 September 2009 @ 16:03 @ Intrepid and Riot, yes there will always be blackspots of ignorance but on the whole people are more informed nowadays I'd imagine. Thank God for that.

Thomas 5 September 2009 @ 16:05 @ Perry, great blog - I don't recall hearing of this tragedy as a child but its a very sad reminder of how bleak the country was when it was in the stranglehold of the church.

CeeDee 5 September 2009 @ 17:29 Great piece Cormo. Very sad to read and it shows what state Ireland was in back then. It's important not to forget these people and their stories.

Erytheis 5 September 2009 @ 17:52 Unfortunately she was not the only one who "went on an extended holiday" or "Died suddenly from illness" She has been forgotten, a picture of her has never come to light and the bare antidotes on her are those that would be said of any child "a lively lass" indeed, but this lively lass must have had an opinion on something, must have had an enjoyment of one thing over others. I was only 10 and living in a close-minded rural community, taught in an extremely religious school so Anne was not discussed in front of the children. She was brought to light by one phone call, what if it had been a summer holiday, how many would have noticed her absence, who would have cared. Who was this whistle-blower, and what reasoning did he have to come forward if he saw that all around him had acepted her shame and moved on. Was this the real start of the decline in Ireland zealotness to the Catholic Church and the dogma ingrained with it? It also makes me pose the question "Do we honestly think this couldn't happen again?" I believe it could, the education system in Ireland has not changed that much in those 20 years, and I know many parents who block their ears and minds to the activities of their children until it's too late.

Anfor 5 September 2009 @ 18:54 Excellent blog St. P C I remember reading about it and hearing people talk about it and their reactions. Its all our duties to do what we can to see that it never happens again. I do believe things have changed in Ireland but a lot more needs to change still.

Beckie 5 September 2009 @ 19:53 Excellent blog St. P C.Very good.

Ilichsanchez 5 September 2009 @ 20:43 I'd honestly love to know what was going through this girls mind as she pushed out this child under the statue of mary and to find it stillborn, i'm sure her friend who she confided in knew very little in real terms of what her friend was going through and was about to experience. I shared a house with a girl several years ago. She got pregnant by a random stranger on a booze fuelled night out which forced her to move back to her parents house. To this day her father hasn't spoken one word to her since and never once picked up his first grandchild. In rural Ireland, being a single mother still has a huge stigma attached to it.

MrWindUpBird 5 September 2009 @ 23:38 May she and her baby rest in peace. This is an excellent piece Perry.

College Guy 6 September 2009 @ 00:25 Yeah great blog Perry!! It shows that the Church had a great hold on the community and this poor girl was terrified to confide to her parents!! You know the sad thing is, that some people would feel she's better off dead after having sex out of wedlock!! You really show how hypocritical the Church's teachings are and how everyone tried to cover it up, typical hush hush small town/catholic church mentality!!Poor Girl!!

Dubsteve 6 September 2009 @ 09:16 great blog perry.very sad indeed.different times back then especially in rural areas in ireland.thankfully those days are almost gone,sex is not such a taboo subject nor are unplanned pregnancies its all part of life.poor ann how she went through all that alone may she rest in peace.

Shaggy 6 September 2009 @ 12:08 Aww I enjoyed that blog Perry! I don't think I had heard this story before. Sad though. I thought it was going to be about you and a classmate getting it on at the back of the grotto in the beginning!

Marlbo 6 September 2009 @ 12:39 A most excellent blog Perry. Twenty five years later and yet the truth is been witheld. Selective christian values still prevail .

Dubsteve 6 September 2009 @ 21:06 shaggy I thought it was going to be about you and a classmate getting it on at the back of the grotto in the beginning! haha me too. thats in next weeks blog ey perry

Skyline 6 September 2009 @ 23:24 Brilliant PC. She needed very little from her community, but that was too much for them to give. There are so many aspects of Irish rural life interwoven in this tragic event. I remember the story, and the condemnation re the town people, but I also remember girls who were pregnant or had become mothers in my own town, who left for London and the like, not because they were excommunicated, but because they were judged and frowned upon so much, that they decided themselves to leave. So this behaviour was wasnt uncommon in Ireland. I think we have moved forward, and with the revelations re the catholic church, we have become more open minded, and articulate.... the fear to speak has faded. Ann Lovett had noone to turn to, whereas today, there are teachers, friends, the parents of friends, extended family ect who one can turn to. Ann Lovett has shown her strenght. She was a fifteen year old who gave birth successfully on her own, she had managed to tend to the aftermath of this, in sofar as she could... I can only imagine the fear re the reality of this situation..... an absolute tragedy, and a very brave young girl. I think her sister committed suicide and her father died shortly after her death. I wonder about the father of the baby, was he ever identified... he could still be a relatively young man now (if he was a peer). RIP Ann Lovett (and little one)

PixieDawn 7 September 2009 @ 00:48 Pc I remember that story so well, and you told it brilliantly, if I remember correctly shortly afterwards we had a refrumdum on abortion, this played on my mind when I voted, now can a society, pretend that they care, when they where so judgmental about it. A girl who was 15 years of age died, and so did her son, because everyone thought some one else was sorting it out. But no one ways. That is more a reflection on us as a people than anything else. eg Irish people and how we deal with stuff. Great blog has me thinking.

Elat 7 September 2009 @ 18:35 very sad story. good blog perry!

Jupiterkid 8 September 2009 @ 07:55 Very good blog Perry. Yes, Ireland was a much more socially benighted country 25 years ago but if you strip away at the veneer of the recent prosperity and pretentiousness that Ireland has recently gone through, has all that much changed? Could another Anne Lovett situation happen in 2009? I'd be of the opinion that sadly yes, it could. Ireland still has quite a long way to go.

Perplexed 10 September 2009 @ 22:34 devine indeed!

Futgay 14 September 2009 @ 07:48 Such a trrue ad well wrote story.