Irish Nurses in the NHS

An oral history

Louise Ryan, Gráinne McPolin and Neha Doshi

“Reading their testimonies in Irish Nurses in the NHS is like opening a time capsule into the lifestyles and attitudes of earlier generations who emigrated to Liverpool, Leeds, London, Glasgow and other British cities ... The book is important in the context of a wider, and long overdue, recognition of the contribution made by our Irish nurses to that iconic British institution, the NHS.” Martina Devlin, the Irish Independent

“A new book reveals how Irish nurses helped build Britain’s National Health Service … Irish Nurses in the NHS: An Oral History explains how a generation of mostly young women left rural homes when they were just 18 to move to post-war Britain for hospital training and jobs … The book’s authors – Louise Ryan, Grainne McPolin and Neha Doshi – record how Irish toil helped to build a British institution.” Irish Daily Mirror

“Using rich oral history and photography … [this book is] a treasure trove for the family historian … This wonderful social study explores their life experiences as nurses and as Irish migrants in British society which, was generally speaking welcoming and accommodating, but certainly not without its challenges.” Ireland’s Genealogical Gazette

"This book is a meaningful, insightful read. It is based around 45 interviews with Irish nurses detailing their personal journeys to England and the NHS. It explores the journey to England, the training they received, the challenges they faced, and also the little bit of fun that they had. This book will resonate through the foundations of every family in Ireland who had a family member who was forced to emigrate to England at some stage in their life and who ended up becoming a nurse in the NHS ... if you were an Irish nurse that trained in England in the 1940s, ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, or ’80s, this book honours your contribution and achievement and helps begin the national conversation to ensure the recognition that Irish nurses so richly deserve. The sheer scale and significance of Irish nurses’ contribution to the NHS deserves to be acknowledged and celebrated." Caroline Gourley, Irish Labour History Society (online review)

"This excellent book reflects on the contribution of Irish nurses to the NHS. They seem to have been able to combine the hard working environment with a strong caring approach. They managed to navigate a life full of fun with a degree of seriousness and conscientiousness summarised in the phrase ‘humanity and humility' ... Overall this is an excellent book. It is never easy to analyse and present the findings from an oral history study. This has certainly been achieved in full measure and the book should take its place in the studies of the Irish diaspora in general and the nursing profession in 
particular." James Kennedy, The Irish Voice, March 2025