DETAILS
Tuesday 9 July 2024, 5:30pm
No. 3 Court, Old Supreme Court Building, Cnr King & Elizabeth Streets, Sydney
The launch of Sister Liguori: The Nun who Divided a Nation by Jeff Kildea
The book will be launched by Geraldine Doogue AO (Journalist and Radio and Television Presenter).
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 order, it 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.
Then followed one of the most controversial court cases of the 1920s, Partridge v. Dwyer, in which the ex-nun sued Bishop Dwyer for damages. In a hearing attracting the attention of the press across Australia and around the world, leading counsel, A.B. Shand KC and J.L. Campbell KC, argued the case before Justice David Ferguson and a jury of four in No. 3 Court, where the launch will be held. Each day the gallery was packed; hundreds queuing in the rain to get a seat.
Meanwhile, 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 left the country without charge, the opposition moved a censure motion that threatened to bring down the Labor government.
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, and is the author of the following books: Author of Tearing the Fabric: Sectarianism in Australia 1910-1925 (2002), Anzacs and Ireland (2007), Wartime Australians: Billy Hughes (2008), Hugh Mahon: Patriot, Pressman, Politician (Vol 1 2017, Vol 2 2020), Leaving Home: Stories of My Emigrant Ancestors (2021), and co-author of To Foster an Irish Spirit: The Irish National Association of Australasia 1915-2015 (2020).
To attend this event RSVP by 5 July 2024 jfkildea@icloud.com or anthony@connorcourt.com
Sister Liguori: The Nun Who Divided a Nation (ISBN 9781923224063), Connor Court Publishing
RECORDING
Jeff’s presentation to the Aisling Society on 26 February 2025.
AI simulated interviews with Bridget Partridge and Bishop Joseph Dwyer in relation to the Sister Liguori Affair of 1920-21
