Nagle, Nano (1718–1784)

Irish Catholic nun, founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of Presentation in 1775. She devoted her life to improving the status of Irish Catholics through education. She was born in Ballygriffin, County Cork, but (due to penal law restrictions) was educated in France. She entered the Ursuline Order in France to pray for Irish Catholics who were denied education. Later she returned to Cork and in 1752 established the first of 20 schools in Cork city. To continue her work she introduced the Ursuline Order in 1771, but was frustrated by their rule of enclosure and four years later founded the Sisters of Presentation.