Clodagh Finn: The Irish women who paved the way for the ‘first modern lesbian’

Writers, illustrators, dukes, even Charles Darwin called on the Irish ladies who dressed like men who fled their homes and families in Ireland to live together in peace in Wales, writes Clodagh Finn.

The Ladies of Llangollen simply wanted to be left alone to correspond with friends, enjoy their well-stocked library, their rambling gardens, and their mutual interest in the arts.

Fans of Gentleman Jack, the BBC series based on industrialist’s Anne Lister’s diaries — “the Dead Sea Scrolls of lesbian history” as Emma Donoghue memorably called them — will be thrilled to hear that the second series has just wrapped.