In June 2024 Connor Court Publishing published my latest book, Sister Liguori: The Nun Who Divided a Nation (ISBN: 9781923224063, Paperback 254 pages, RRP $34.95).

It is the true but amazing story of an Irish Catholic nun who in July 1920 fled her Wagga Wagga convent on a frosty winter’s night dressed only in her nightdress fearful she was about to be murdered by her mother superior. When she placed herself under the protection of the Orange order it sparked a sectarian war that played out in the press, the parliament, and at protest meetings across the country, dividing the Australian nation still recovering from the bitter debates over conscription and riven by the violent struggle for Irish independence. At the request of Bishop Joseph Dwyer, Sister Liguori (aka Bridget Partridge) was arrested under the Lunacy Act 1898 but was released by the Lunacy Court. With the support of the Orange order she then sued the bishop in the Supreme Court for damages. More than an episode in Australia’s political and religious history, it is also a very personal story of a young woman who, in attempting to leave a system she found oppressive, ended up in no-man’s land, caught between two powerful forces keen to use her plight to advance their ends.

The book can be ordered through Connor Court Publishing: https://www.connorcourtpublishing.com.au/Sister-Liguori-The-Nun-who-Divided-a-Nation–Jeff-Kildea_p_602.html.