Silver Sisterhood

The community is known for creating early text adventure video games such as The Snow Queen[1] and Jack the Ripper.

The Silver Sisterhood came to Burtonport from Yorkshire in September 1982[2] and occupied a large house that had previously been the home of the Atlantis commune (often referred to as the Screamers).

[3] In an interview for RTÉ, a member expressed hope that men would come to live in the community long-term but acknowledged that it was difficult to attract them.

[4] Later in the 1980s, members began to wear full Victorian era outfits on a regular basis and to style themselves as Romantics.

[6][1] Visitors to St. Bride's were offered various courses including peat cutting and the experience of attending a Victorian boarding school.

[6] The school was advertised in various publications including The Observer, The Sunday Times, Girl About Town, and the theatre programme of the play Daisy Pulls It Off.

[7] Daily Telegraph writer Candida Crewe likened the house to a Gothic novel where "a single candle flickered behind a lace curtain, guests were invited into a parlour heated only by a feeble coal fire, and the mistress of the house greeted her guests wearing a long black dress and white lace collar".

[5] Discipline and corporal punishment, including caning, were part of the experience and achieved a greater prominence in later years.

A departure from St. Bride's earlier light-hearted adventures, Jack the Ripper was the first video game to receive an "18" rating, mainly on the basis of illustrations supplied by the publisher, CRL.

[13] This included a two-year correspondence with John Tyndall, then leader of the British National Party, who expressed his admiration for what the St. Bride's group were doing.

[13] In addition to this, large quantities of sadomasochistic fetish magazines were found at the property, alongside "caning recommendation" forms which, according to The Sunday Telegraph, indicated regular beatings were occurring at St Bride's.