Sister Liguori - Jeff Kildea

A true story stranger than fiction. When an Irish Catholic nun, fearful she was about to be murdered by her mother superior, fled her convent in Wagga Wagga and sought the protection of the Orange lodge, she sparked a sectarian war that divided the Australian nation. Arrested as a lunatic at the request of her bishop she was declared sane by the Lunacy Court and released. She then sued the bishop for damages in the Supreme Court in a case that lasted two weeks and attracted the attention of the press across Australia and around the world. In parliament, demands by opposition members for an inquiry into Catholic convents led to threats of violence between Catholic and Protestant MPs. When the nun's brother kidnapped her off a suburban Sydney street, intending to take her back to her family in Ireland, the police intervened. But when the brother was allowed to leave the country without charge, the opposition moved a censure motion that threatened to bring down the Labor government.

'Australia's greatest religious controversy of [the 20th century]' - Alan Gill, Sydney Morning Herald

'Her story is fantastical - I think she's a very strong woman who needs to be put up on a pedestal. Her story must be known to the world.' - Amanda Bromfield in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

'The publicity given to the Liguori affair fanned smouldering sectarian bitterness, exacerbated by the contemporary struggle for Irish independence'. - Zita Denholm, Australian Dictionary of Biography.

'The Irish nun who started a holy war'. - Irish Daily Mail.

Dr Jeff Kildea is a retired barrister and honorary professor in Irish Studies at the University of New South Wales. In 2014 he held the Keith Cameron Chair of Australian History at University College Dublin. He has written extensively on the history of the Irish in Australia. His books include Tearing the Fabric: Sectarianism in Australia 1910-1925, Anzacs and Ireland, Wartime Australians: Billy Hughes, Hugh Mahon: Patriot, Pressman, Politician, and Leaving Home: Stories of my Emigrant Ancestors. With Richard Reid and Perry McIntyre, he co-authored To Foster an Irish Spirit: The Irish National Association of Australasia 1915-2015.