{"id":97563,"date":"2025-08-28T01:03:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T01:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/97563\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T01:03:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T01:03:06","slug":"a-wave-of-women-who-were-irelands-loss-and-britains-gain-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/97563\/","title":{"rendered":"A wave of women who were Ireland\u2019s loss and Britain\u2019s gain \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The story of the generations of Irish women who became nurses in the UK<\/a> is told with great warmth and poignancy in Emerald Nightingales \u2013 Irish Nurses in the NHS (RT\u00c9<\/a> One, 10.35pm). Narrated by actor and former nurse Helen Behan, it celebrates the contribution to British healthcare of the thousands of young Irish women who left home<\/a> \u2013 often after finding it impossible to train as nurses in Ireland because the system was closed to poor people from outside the big cities. <\/p>\n

That was Ireland\u2019s loss and Britain\u2019s gain, as this fascinating film demonstrates. Not that the UK was quite paved with gold. The nurses recall arriving at dark and forbidding training hospitals, often dating from the 19th century, and wondering if they had made a mistake. But they stayed and created new lives for themselves. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the full contribution is understood,\u201d says Louise Ryan, a senior professor at London Metropolitan University, who conducted the original oral history on which the film is based. \u201cThere were over 30,000 Irish-born nurses working in the NHS<\/a>. It is quite remarkable that they have been relatively overlooked.\u201d<\/p>\n

These women are now well into retirement age, and their story is, in a way, the story of Britain and Ireland in the 20th century. One woman recalls her mother disapproving of her moving to \u201cProtestant\u201d England and assuring her that she would be back with her tail between her legs. But she was wrong. <\/p>\n

Many were recruited in the west of Ireland, which was still suffering the consequences of centuries of underdevelopment. \u201cIreland was … I wouldn\u2019t say backwards. People needed a way out,\u201d recalls one now-retired nurse. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t any work. It was tough. That was really the only way to progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

The welcome offered by Britain was not unqualified, and things took a turn for the worse during the Provisional IRA<\/a> bombing campaign of Britain. A soldier who had served in Northern Ireland refused to be treated by Irish medical staff; other patients would make \u201csnide\u201d remarks about Irish people within earshot of the nurses. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you were Irish you put your head down,\u201d recalls one nurse who worked in the English Midlands in the 1970s. \u201cYou made sure you didn\u2019t speak. It wasn\u2019t a pleasant place. I was different \u2013 a potential bomber.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Irish diaspora setting up and running businesses abroadOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Emerald Nightingales has the narrow focus of chronicling the experiences of nurses and does not address broader issues, such as the social circumstances that led many to leave \u2013 or Britain\u2019s exceptionalist idea that the NHS is a uniquely world-class health system (France\u2019s health system is arguably superior, yet they don\u2019t crow about it constantly). <\/p>\n

However, it stands as a heartwarming tribute to these women \u2013 and serves as a poignant reminder of the challenges faced by immigrants. Britain was no paradise on earth \u2013 but it gave these women a career and a new life. As this documentary makes clear, the UK got plenty back in return. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The story of the generations of Irish women who became nurses in the UK is told with great…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[18812,102,2960,39457,104,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-97563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-emigration","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-irish-republican-army","12":"tag-nhs","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}