Suzanne Harrington: The legacy of Ann Lovett in a vastly changed Ireland

"What Ann Lovett taught us was that the adults in charge could not be trusted, that they would rather see a girl dead than pregnant; for 15-year-old girls up and down the country, the message was stark. You were on your own."

Suzanne Harrington. Pic: Andrew Hasson

A lot has been written about Ann Lovett lately, as we look back in horror, but not disbelief. 

I did my Inter Cert the same year as her; 40 years on, her name still invokes an old feeling of dread inside. A kind of existential fear and powerlessness.