This week every person in Ireland was shocked and deeply saddened when it was reported that a Father had killed his wife and three young children in a murder suicide. Gardai announced the weapons used were a knife and a hatchet. Hearts broke all over the country upon hearing what had happened to those little children, murdered by there father while dressed in there night clothes. What happened in their home that night nobody will ever understand. It is unbearable to even imagine how afraid they must have felt. When I heard of what happened I was reminded of a letter I found but have not known what to do about.
I then spent the evening watching a documentary I looked up featuring Christy Moore. He speaks about how disgusted he was at the response to the untimely death of Anne Lovett. While listening to him I resolved that I would share this article, the subject matter of which has haunted me. An article I have approached many local publications about too but none expressed interest in it. I have been torn as to what to do or whether I should do anything. With the tragic news of those poor children’s death and the sadness that swept the nation I couldn’t help but think, why was Anne not mourned in the same way? She was only 15. Yet when Gay Byrne read the headline about her death on the late late show he remarked “not much there”.
In 2016 to be a woman is no longer to be a second class citizen. We vote, we have equal rights, women are celebrated. Mother’s day, International women’s are dates where we take special recognition of women. Acknowledging there value. However this is a very different era to the one Anne lived in. Anne was a school girl who suffered a tragic and preventable death. Lying alone giving birth in a grotto on a cold dark evening on the 31st of January 1984 she too would have felt scared. Anne’s baby would be around the same age as I had he lived. if circumstances had been different they too would be celebrating Mother’s Day and International women’s day. Then it dawned on me that for Anne, being a woman and then a mother was not something she ever enjoyed. For Anne, being a woman and a mother was the cause of her death.
I felt compelled to acknowledge her, ironic as so many had failed to do so during her lifetime. I visited Granard, her home town. I am not religious but succumbing to custom I stopped off to buy a small bouquet of flowers and decided to visit Anne’s grave. I searched all over, eventually locating it down the back of the cemetery. She is buried with her baby, her sister and her father who passed away 3 years after her death from a stroke. Her grave is one that requires minimal maintenance.
I noticed a piece of paper had been placed in a glass bottle and tucked in the corner of the grave. I assumed it would be a prayer. Curiosity led me to read it thinking this young girl was so neglected and failed by all, what words would they place on her grave to reconcile themselves with that! However what I opened was not a prayer, it was a letter. A letter to Anne, signed with an illegible signature dated from two years ago, the 30th anniversary of her death. Illegible to me but there are handwriting experts. It reads
“Anne,
I’m back to visit you again, This time I need your help to let this go. I want to lay it to rest now. I pray to you to look out for me in this. I pray that nobody gets hurt. That all I want now is no more hurt.
Thank you for helping me- I know you are near me at this time-I feel your presence and was drawn back to Granard once again.
Rest in Peace Anne – it’s been 30yrs for you and for me.”
It was not the heartfelt nostalgic tone I expected. on the contrary, I found it to be almost offensive to her. She is not addressed in a friendly manner but rather a harsh summons. My personal interpretation found the tone of the letter to be quite selfish and demanding. Phrases such as “I need” and “I want”. Considering Anne’s needs and wants were so despicably neglected I thought it quite audacious of the author to make requests. The author can also appear arrogant and presumptuous “thank you for helping me”. My reason for writing this article however is not because of how I interpreted the letter, my reason for making this letter public is for one sentence it includes; “I pray that nobody else gets hurt”. This sentence suggests the ripple effect of Anne becoming pregnant may not have stopped with her death but has potential to cause further destruction. Was this written by an abuser? Was it penned by a religious God fearing man having spent his life mistreating kids now in old age is frightened of meeting his maker? Is this the plea of a predator to his victim to forgive his sins so he shall be granted an eternity in heaven? Is the final line which empathizes with her “it’s been 30 years now….” But also selfishly tells her he was involved too “…for you and for me”. Perhaps the writing of a person in a habit of controlling her.
Or is this written by the father of Anne’s baby but not a child molester. A person who was a frightened teen that was too afraid to come forward at the time? Anne was under the age of consent but maybe he wasn’t. Perhaps he has carried this emotional baggage for 30 years without telling a soul and is looking to Anne for permission to put it to bed. Perhaps what I interpreted as a stern tone is a practiced tone removing emotion from a painful memory. It is possible he has decided to confide in his wife, kids or partner about what happened all those years ago and hopes it will be understood. “I pray that nobody gets hurt”.
There are numerous ways to read this letter but I feel it is a letter that should be read by the public. If it is written by a man who fathered Anne Lovett’s baby with her consent but was too afraid to come forward amidst the media frenzy then I hope he finds happiness. I believe he would have been as much a victim of ‘holy catholic Ireland’ as Anne was. However if it is written by a sexual predator who inflicted pain and tortured Anne, then he should be held accountable. Allowing him to escape by writing a letter when he is facing death in old age would be yet another insult to the memory of this young girl. Perhaps I am completely wrong and the author is not the father of Anne’s baby. Is it somebody who went through a pregnancy that people refused to acknowledge. As was not uncommon at that time. The ambiguity of this letter adds yet another layer of mystery to the tragic tale of Anne Lovett.
Anne’s death was and remains to be shrouded in mystery. In a town of barely 1000 people how could a 15 year old girl from a family of 9 siblings have kept a full term pregnancy secret? Indeed Anne’s entire life is cloaked in secrecy. Her birthday is not known, pictures of her can not be found, and of course the biggest secret of all, who was the father of her baby?
The young girl and her newborn baby had already been buried when an anonymous caller notified the Irish tribune about what had happened. We can only assume he wished to conceal his identity for fear of been shunned by locals of the town. Reporters who flocked to Granard to investigate were met with an impenetrable silence. A silence that has never been broken.
The symbolism that can so effortlessly be attached to the grotto where she died is dark and disturbing. Alone and undoubtedly scared Anne fled to a place outside of her hometown. Away from everyone, isolated. There she lay down near a kneeling statue of Mary Magdalene that lies beneath an elevated statue of the Virgin Mary to whom she is praying. Irrespective of whether this was intentional, unlikely that it was, Anne felt her place at that frightening time in her life was beside a saint that had been shamed and shunned for sexual activity. Instead of surrounding herself with friends or family in a safe place, Anne felt alone in a grotto was where she belonged. Aligning herself with Mary Magdalene, Magdalene defined as “a public sinner”. Having just commemorated the 1916 rising this year let us not forget it is also only 20 years since the last Magdalene Laundries was closed.
Speaking at a ceremony to pay tribute and commemorate all those women who were horrifically victimized in those laundries Sinn Fein deputy leader Mary Lou Mc Donald asserted “… The instincts of the state is to play down the significance of what happened, this is not good enough. What we need is the truth.” The truth of Anne’s death has never been revealed. Garda investigation presented no conclusions, although the department of Education and midlands health board held investigations no findings were ever disclosed to the public.
I was shocked and disgusted that the place of this young girl’s death does not feature any symbol of recognition of Anne or her baby. No plaque, no cross, no trace. Did people know of her pregnancy, is it a horrific injustice against a young girl that the entire town could have helped? Was Anne failed by a community who chose to “mind their own business”? Anne’s family have never spoke out, her mother Patricia and brother Niall still reside in Granard but refuse to talk. Anne’s younger sister, 14 years old, committed suicide less than three months after Anne’s death. People then began to speculate whether it was the girls own father who fathered Anne’s baby and perhaps her sister could not deal with the abuse alone. If this is true then why has her mother and siblings not exposed him for what he was. Perhaps at the time they lived in fear but when her dad passed away why not expose him?
All these years later she is still been robbed of her dignity. Do her family or neighbours know the answer? Her father? A brother? A teacher? A priest? A guard? A customer of the pub her father owned? Did they suspect and do nothing? There are numerous possibilities. Somebody somewhere knows the answer, did she die giving birth to a baby conceived in rape, and if so who killed Anne Lovett? Is it the person who signed the letter?
Rexyreports 