Irish Resistors

Although Ireland remained neutral during WW 2 some of the Irish did not. A plaque at the Irish College in Paris commemorates 50 Irish women and men who fought in the French Resistance ~ half of them are women.

One of them is Katherine Anne McCarthy, also known as Sr Marie-Laurence, a nun in Bethune, France in WW 1 who returned to France just before WW 2. This time she joined the French Resistance and aided the escape of more than 120 Allied airmen from Occupied France. However, she was apprehended by the Gestapo when a courier was caught, tortured and gave up names of resistors.

She spent a year in solitary confinement and 3 years in forced labour. She was liberated from Ravensbruck Concentration Camp in 1945 by the Swedish Red Cross. She received medals for her achievements from Britain, France and the Black Cat emblem of the Maquis. She returned to Ireland and became mother superior of Honan Home in Cork.