An Irishwoman’s Diary: Bridget Coll was a 'militant' lesbian nun who made history

Bridget Coll’s story isn’t so well known in her native Ireland. 

Bridget Coll’s story reads like fiction — a thriller even — just as the many words used to describe her don’t seem to fit together: nun, lesbian, teacher, militant, law-changer, even “home-wrecker”.

This “tiny woman with a fierce heart” from Fanad Co Donegal protested in Chile and made legal history in Canada. But at home in Ireland, her story isn’t so well known.