Bishop denies role in Ann Lovett case

Retired bishop Colm O’Reilly has denied claims that he swore a man who says he was Ann Lovett’s boyfriend to silence regarding letters she allegedly left behind.

The reaction came after a 51-year-old man told the Irish Times that he was her former boyfriend. Ann died after giving birth to a stillborn boy at a grotto in Granard, Co. Longford in 1984.

Richard ‘Ricky’ McDonnell said Ms Lovett left two letters, one of which was addressed to him, and that the local priest Fr John Quinn advised him to burn the letter.

He said the “gist” of the letter was “how much that Ann had loved me, and how sorry she was for doing what she was going to do. She had never meant to hurt me. That she had loved me. That the reason she was doing it was that nobody would believe I was the father of that child”.

Mr McDonnell said that Fr Quinn brought him to the bishop – Colm O’Reilly – at a later date. He says the bishop swore him to a vow of silence about the issue, “And that I would have to kiss the seal of St Peter and he held out his hand with his bishop’s ring. I was never to breathe a word of it again, he said”.

In response to the claims a statement was released on behalf of Bishop Emeritus O’Reilly stating: “Bishop O’Reilly has never met or communicated with Mr Richard McDonnell. Bishop O’Reilly has never asked anyone to meet or communicate with Mr McDonnell on his behalf.”