Heroic Cork nun who saved hundreds during World Wars to be honoured in France

Sister Marie-Laurence, from Drimoleague, was captured by the Gestapo in 1941 and spent a year in solitary confinement before being sentenced to death in 1942 – a sentence she escaped

The plaque to honour Sr Marie-Laurence, who is buried in Cork, has been installed in the Franciscan Sisters cemetery in Bethune, France.

A heroic Irish nun who saved hundreds of lives during two world wars is to be honoured next month in France, where her name is revered.

Kate McCarthy, who was born in Drimoleague, Co Cork, in December 1895, received the name Sister Marie-Laurence when she joined the order of the Franciscans in 1913, and was transferred to Béthune in northern France, where she worked in a hospital.