The last letters of the Lovett sisters: what they reveal, and the questions that remain

They are in tattered lined notebooks, on yellowing scraps of school copybook paper, and on Christmas cards – and each gives an insight into the life in Granard, Co Longford in the 1980s of two sets of teenage girls, sisters Belinda and Carrie Lee and sisters Ann and Trisha Lovett.

As was written in blue biro on many of the envelopes, they were “friends forever”.

They wrote about their favourite songs, boring school classes, looking forward to parties and days off and getting caught smoking.

Their ordinariness is striking. But shortly after these notes were written, just days in some cases, Ann Lovett, aged just 15, would give birth to a stillborn baby boy in a grotto on the outskirts of the town and would die hours later.

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Her sister, Trisha aged 14, would die by suicide three months later. It was a national scandal that resonates to this day.

Belinda and Carrie kept the notes and letters for nearly 40 years and gave them to Irish Times senior feature writer Rosita Boland.

The letters reveal the Lovetts to be funny, intelligent girls, with interests typical for their age. But questions around the circumstances of Ann’s pregnancy and death remain unanswered.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon and Suzanne Brennan.