Chances are you've never heard of Kate McCarthy, but here's an Irishwoman whose life reads like a film script. Born in Drimoleague in Co Cork in 1895, the Irish nun led a very eventful life in France during both world wars, as historian and author Catherine Fleming told Myles Dungan on RTÉ Radio 1's History Show. Here are some edited extracts from the discussion.
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The early years
"She was the eldest of nine children", explains Fleming. "She had an uncle who was a priest, so I'm not sure if that was her inspiration, but she joined the Franciscan nuns in 1913. She was only 18 years old, and she took the religious name Marie-Laurence, and she would spend the first of her years as a young nun in the Great War nursing soldiers and civilians in a little town north of Paris called Béthune. That's how she arrived in France."
The French resistance
After spending some times in the United States, McCarthy returned to France as the country fell to the Nazis. "She went out to treat the prisoners-of-war and the injured soldiers in a POW camp", says Fleming, "and became friends with Sylvette Leleu." A garage owner who led a French resistance group, Leleu joined forces with McCarthy and a local cafe owner called Angèle Tardiveau, whose cafe became the place where soldiers would find safe haven while they were waiting to escape.