Church criticised after teenager dies while giving birth at Marian grotto

Ann was a 15-year-old schoolgirl who died giving birth to a baby boy beside a grotto in her small home town of Granard on January 31, 1984.

The child also died and the subsequent scandal over what had happened evolved into a key issue of often angry debate with the Irish abortion law which was again under the microscope.

Government papers released under the 30 year rule reveal little if any Government angst over what happened at a time of genuine nervous tension over the whole right-to-life issue.

Ann was discovered lying beside the statue of the Virgin Mary by a group of children walking home from school.

She was still alive but haemorrhaging heavily.

Ann was taken by car to the home of her parents but found to be dead when an ambulance arrived there.

Her child had died at the wind and rain-swept grotto a short time after his open-air birth, not long after Ann had left her class at Granard's Mercy College for the last time.

It was several days before the fate of Ann and the little boy became known nationwide.

The story appeared in a Sunday newspaper which was tipped off by an anonymous telephone call, and soon went viral.

The incident prompted a deluge of angry questions, primarily focusing on just how Ann - one of nine children - had been able to carry a child to full term, apparently without anyone knowing, with townspeople insisting they had no knowledge about what had been going on.

It also prompted people throughout Ireland and overseas to query just why a teenage girl had not found it possible to approach anyone to plea for help at a time of clearly deep distress.

Even today the people of Granard are outwardly reluctant to talk freely about what happened to Ann and her doomed infant - but everyone still acknowledges the immense loss and sadness the town was forced to endure for years after the tragedy.

While the official records disclose little about ministerial views of the affair, the papers tell of concerns within Ireland over the reaction expressed by the Archdiocese of Armagh, the base of then-Cardinal Tomas O'Fiaich.

In the absence of the cardinal, the diocesan secretary rejected criticism of both the people of Granard and the school she attended, by insisting that priests had reported similar cases of girls reaching full-term pregnancies without it being known to either their parents or teachers.

He said it had been "unfortunate" that Ann had not made it known to anyone who might have been able to help.

He added: "Why she chose to keep her secret will never be known."

"I think her sad death reflects more her immaturity than any lack of Christian charity amongst the family and people with whom she lived."

Wicklow man Christopher Daybell sent a copy of a letter he received on the matter from the archdiocese to Tanaiste Dick Spring for the attention of Taoiseach Dr Garret FitzGerald, claiming it went "beyond hypocrisy".

He insisted that the government should be aware of what he called the "Church's attitude towards Ann Lovett's death."

Mr Daybell said the letter he received from the diocesan secretary had "driven me almost mad."

He insisted that the matter be brought to the personal attention of Dr FitzGerald.

However, there is no record in the archive of what response was made.