Book review: ‘I looked on it as an adventure, I’d never been anywhere’

The  National Health Service is one of Britain’s most respected and valued institutions and from its inception in 1948, one group in particular has been central to its development — Irish nurses. 

By the 1970s, there were over 30,000 Irish-born nurses working across the British health service.

From chapter 3: ‘They’re coming to me’: NHS recruitment in Ireland

From the 1940s, the NHS carried out a targeted recruitment process throughout Ireland.

Advertisements were placed not only in the big national dailies, like the Irish Independent, but also in local papers in every province of the country.

These advertisements, such as the example here from the Cork Examiner, usually announced that the recruitment team would be in local hotels on particular dates and anyone interested in an interview should write to make an appointment.

The advertisements were worded in a very enticing way. In addition to being paid while training and having accommodation in the Nurses’ Home, many advertisements also promised nursing students the extra incentive of paid travel back to Ireland for annual holidays.

Kathleen, who grew up in the North of Ireland, went to train in Liverpool in 1968: 

‘I remember the name of it, the Northern Constitution was the name of the paper and that’s where the advert was’. Similarly, Aileen recalled ‘in the Sunday Press at home and I saw the ad and I applied’.

Advertisements were also placed in Catholic newspapers. 

For example, Ruth vaguely recalled seeing the ad for nursing recruits in ‘one of the Catholic newspapers’, while Veronica remembered clearly that she saw the ad in The Universe, the main Catholic newspaper: ‘ The Universe yes, and there were two hospitals advertised — one was in Eastbourne and another was in Stoke-on-Trent’.

Sinead, who was originally from Kerry, had completed her Leaving Certificate and was doing a commercial course when one of the girls in her class got an interview for nursing training in Britain:

 ‘She said, “Oh I’ve got an interview for nursing next week in Cork” I said, “Have you? How did you get that?” so she told me’. 

Sinead also applied and was invited for an interview. She remembered getting the train from Kerry to the hotel in Cork. 

Like several other participants, Sinead appreciated especially the ease of going to interviews in nearby towns and cities around Ireland:

‘Being honest, I had no thoughts about going to London, it was just the fact the interview was in Cork… it was convenient.’

I didn’t have to travel anywhere, I just had to get the train from Kerry to Cork, I got the train, went on my own.

Orla, originally from Cork, while noting the difficulty of getting into nurse training in Ireland, due to long waiting lists and high costs, emphasised the ease of gaining access to nurse training in Britain: 

‘There were adverts and I wrote off to some of the places advertising nursing places and there was one group coming to interview at the Intercontinental Hotel in Cork and I thought, “Oh that’s great, I don’t even have to find them, they’re coming to me” and that’s after I’d been for, I think some of the local hospitals and was told there was this waiting list.’

Apart from the advertisements, the interviews by NHS recruiters in local hotels could also pique the curiosity of some teenagers.

Finnuala was 18 years old and just finished school in the early 1970s. At that time, she had no plan to pursue nurse training in Britain.

One Saturday afternoon, she and a friend went to Cork city to do some shopping.

‘I was in town with my friend, and in the Metropole Hotel there was a sign that said, “Do you want to come to London?” I went, “Yes, of course!” “Have you got the Leaving Cert?” “Yes.” “Come in for an informal talk.” 

‘So, we went in, and it was a Miss M, who was the head nurse at (London) Hospital. She sold it to us… because there was nothing in Cork, and I came home and said to my mother, “I’m going to be a nurse.” “Oh, I’m so proud,” she said, “Are you going to St Finbarr’s?” And I said, “No, I’m going to London.”

‘She wasn’t very happy, but in the end anyway, she relented, and that’s how we made the steps to come here.’

It may seem strange that girls of 17 or 18 years of age would pack up and leave Ireland, simply on the basis of a recruitment campaign enticing them to go to Britain and become a nurse.

As described by Finnuala above, the decisions sometimes seemed rather spontaneous and even surprised their families. These decisions need to be understood against the culture of migration in Irish society at that time.

Extract from Chapter 4 — ‘What an adventure’: Stories of the First Journey

Most of the nurses we interviewed had been recruited directly from Ireland to train in various hospitals across Britain.

As they embarked on their careers, most were around 18, had recently left school, and had never been away from home before.

Although they had applied for nurse training in British hospitals with varied levels of enthusiasm, when it came to actually leaving home for the first time, many felt sad, tearful, and nervous about what lay ahead.

Nonetheless, for most of these young people, there was also an enormous sense of adventure as they embarked upon a new chapter in their lives.

Like most of our participants, Linda arrived on the ferry from Ireland. She noted that many people are surprised when she mentions coming on a boat in 1972. 

To modern-day listeners, it seems like something from ancient history: ‘Whenever I tell people I come over on the boat now they’re like: “that was like not just one century ago, like a hundred centuries ago, you came on the boat!” and I really did come on the boat’.

Indeed, many of our participants had powerful memories of the boats.

Carmel, originally from Donegal, travelled from Belfast by boat in 1954: ‘I always remember how lonesome when we got off that big boat. We sailed from Belfast to Liverpool.’

Interestingly, several nurses, especially those who travelled from Dublin to Liverpool, came not on passenger ferries, as might be expected today, but actually on cattle boats. 

These ships were designed for carrying cargo, especially live animals, and usually only carried small numbers of human passengers.

Jane vividly recalled: ‘oh it was awful, horrible… there was only like benches…it was like a cattle boat’.

Sisters Aoife and Una, who were interviewed together in Liverpool, also recalled the cattle boats in the early 1960s: ‘The boats at that time came into Birkenhead and they used to call them the “cattle boats”… loads of cattle on them, very little people on them but lots of cattle on them’.

Travelling from Cork on the famous Innisfallen

Those travelling from Cork usually made the journey on the famous Innisfallen, which travelled from the port of Cork to Fishguard, and later to Swansea in Wales. 

In fact, the Innisfallen was a name given to five different ships that travelled from Cork through most of the 1900s. It is estimated that around 1m people emigrated on the Innisfallen ships.

Claire, originally from the West of Ireland, set off on the Innisfallen from Cork: ‘I do remember that journey… I don’t think I slept really but I could hear water running on the boat and I was like, “We’re going down” but somebody had left a tap on … You know, I could hear this.’

Claire, despite her misgivings about the Innisfallen, was excited about the adventure: ‘It was an experience because obviously where I initially come from, a little village in the west of Ireland… Yes, what an adventure!’ 

Similarly, Sheila, who also sailed from Cork on the Innisfallen, in 1960, did not recall feeling particularly upset. Instead, she embraced a spirit of adventure: ‘Maybe I looked on it as an adventure because I’d never been anywhere, I just can’t remember being terribly sad’.