I was Ann Lovett’s boyfriend Ann Lovett died aged 15 in 1984 after giving birth at a grotto in Granard, Co Longford – a tragedy that continues to resonate. Today, Ann’s former boyfriend Ricky McDonnell speaks publicly for the first time 5th May, 2018 Rosita Boland 20 Images Video Richard “Ricky” McDonnell: “At the beginning I was silent out of fear, and then it was out of respect.” Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons/The Irish Times Richard “Ricky” McDonnell is standing at the gate, staring at a house on Colmcille Terrace, Granard, Co Longford. There was a time, 34 years ago, when he knew this house inside out. It was here he had lived from the age of six to 17 – including several years on his own – until he had to leave. It was here he had spent many hours with his former girlfriend Ann Lovett, who died aged 15 after giving birth at the grotto in the town on January 31st, 1984. It was here, on that January day, Ricky McDonnell’s life changed u
Guest Post | by Owen Felix O'Neill Between 5,000 and 7,000 healthy single mothers died in Irish unwed mothers institutions and w e need an honest public discussion of that appalling toll. I was born in such an institution: St. Patrick’s on the Navan Road Dublin, the biggest in the country. I spent my first 4 years there. My mother, Norah, was 38 when she had me in 1954. It obviously wasn’t easy for her or the other women of these homes and although I never knew her, the following is based on my conversations over the years with other women who survived the homes. RELIGIOUS BUTCHERY -NOT MEDICINE In some London hospitals in the early 1940s, 50s and 60s, many of the midwives in training were Irish nuns. But once their training was completed and they returned home to Ireland and started to work at the nine main unmarried mothers homes they altered some of the surgical procedures they learnt in London to lethal effect. An episiotomy, although no longer routine, is a f
ADOPTING COUPLE'S NEW BABY DELIVERED BY MIRACLE STORK by Fintan Dunne, 30 July, 2105 In a world-first, a Minnesota couple are now celebrating the arrival of a new-born baby girl --which came via a miraculous delivery by stork! The couple, Sarah and David Olson already had two children - but had been battling a harrowing secret ordeal. They always knew they wanted three children, but they lacked that third infant which would make their family "complete". The Olsens had been trying in vain to conceive for what must have seemed an interminable eight long months before eventually deciding to adopt while aboard Sarah's birthday gift flight to New York. That decision was partly inspired by Sarah's sister - who had already taken delivery of a child she had ordered online via Amazon.com in an inter-country adoption from China. But Sarah and David could hardly believe what happened next. After months of waiting, one Tuesday their Christian adoption consult
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