The story of the generations of Irish women who became nurses in the UK is told with great warmth and poignancy in Emerald Nightingales – Irish Nurses in the NHS (RTÉ 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 – often after finding it impossible to train as nurses in Ireland because the system was closed to poor people from outside the big cities.
That was Ireland’s loss and Britain’s 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.
“I don’t think the full contribution is understood,” says Louise Ryan, a senior professor at London Metropolitan University, who conducted the original oral history on which the film is based. “There were over 30,000 Irish-born nurses working in the NHS. It is quite remarkable that they have been relatively overlooked.”
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 “Protestant” England and assuring her that she would be back with her tail between her legs. But she was wrong.
Many were recruited in the west of Ireland, which was still suffering the consequences of centuries of underdevelopment. “Ireland was … I wouldn’t say backwards. People needed a way out,” recalls one now-retired nurse. “There wasn’t any work. It was tough. That was really the only way to progress.”
The welcome offered by Britain was not unqualified, and things took a turn for the worse during the Provisional IRA bombing campaign of Britain. A soldier who had served in Northern Ireland refused to be treated by Irish medical staff; other patients would make “snide” remarks about Irish people within earshot of the nurses.
“If you were Irish you put your head down,” recalls one nurse who worked in the English Midlands in the 1970s. “You made sure you didn’t speak. It wasn’t a pleasant place. I was different – a potential bomber.”
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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 – or Britain’s exceptionalist idea that the NHS is a uniquely world-class health system (France’s health system is arguably superior, yet they don’t crow about it constantly).
However, it stands as a heartwarming tribute to these women – and serves as a poignant reminder of the challenges faced by immigrants. Britain was no paradise on earth – but it gave these women a career and a new life. As this documentary makes clear, the UK got plenty back in return.