"The Bridie Fund" was established in December of 1995 in memory of Bridget Deignan by her daughters Dr. Ann Deignan and Sr. Kathleen Deignan, C.N.D., with Linda and Randy Klein. The Bridie Fund specifically addresses the needs of street children and orphans in Nicaragua.

Bridie Deignan was herself an orphan from Ballyglass, East Loughlynn, County Roscommon, in the impoverished west of Ireland. Born to a peasant family she was the second youngest of six children. When her mother died during childbirth, all the children were disbursed to different homes. Little Bridie was sent to on orphanage run by Catholic sisters with her sister Kathleen who died some years later. She remained there until she was twelve, when she was abruptly sent back to live alone with her father who had neither work nor decent land to farm, in a cold, dark thatched cottage.

She had little food or companionship all those years, without schooling, without health care, without the care she had enjoyed in the orphanage. The poverty and isolation of those circumstances took its toll on her health and when she was sixteen she resolved to return to the orphanage to beg for help. Barefoot she walked the five miles over rough roads to seek assistance. The next day the she was sent to work in Dublin, and to make her way alone in the world, grateful for the compassion she had encountered in her need.

Though she had many obstacles and sufferings in her life her spirit overflowed with tenderness for everyone, especially those who suffered the kind of loss she knew so well. Though she had never known her mother's love she longed for it till the last day of her life, always introducing herself as an orphan to each person she met. Yet this great heartache became an overflowing kindness and love, which she lavished on everyone. The "Bridie Fund" is our way of helping her heart to live on in love and service to those little children who were her special concern.

The members of CT. Quest for Peace are keeping the spirit of Bridie alive by helping to feed and educate over 2,000 orphans and street children in Nicaragua.