Leaving home

07/02/23 • 19 min

In this first episode of the Irish Nurses in the NHS Podcast Series we meet 5 women who left their lives in Ireland to join the NHS. We hear about the challenges of becoming a nurse in Ireland which included a lack of training opportunities, the expense of such unpaid training and the nepotism that was common in Ireland at this time. We also hear about the journeys taken by these women and their first experiences on setting foot in the UK.

Credits:

Music: ‘Resonance’ by Amala Reidun Schlesinger & Paul de Grae

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Credits:

Music: ‘Resonance’ by Amala Reidun Schlesinger & Paul de Grae

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Trailer - Irish Nurses in the NHS

The Irish Nurses in the NHS podcast launches this July to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the inception of the NHS.

Since the NHS was set up in 1948 thousands of women and men from Ireland have come to train and nurse in the UK.

Recruitment drives throughout the 1950s and 60s saw NHS staff travel around Ireland to interview and sign up mainly Irish teenage girls for nurse training. Irish Nurses in the NHS shares the experiences and lives of nurses who travelled from Ireland and helped build the health service over these decades and beyond.

In this series you'll hear from dozens of these nurses about their motivations to leave home, how they adapted to their new lives in Britain and what their training entailed, including many funny memories as well as some sad ones.

It will look at questions like what was it like to leave Ireland at 18 and arrive in a new and unfamiliar country? How were they welcomed and what was life like in Britain? This podcast series aims to answer these questions and brings to life the untold stories of Irish nurses in the NHS.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

Becoming a nurse

This episode of the Irish Nurses in the NHS Podcast Series looks at what it was like to become a nurse in the NHS. Five nurses share with us their recollections of the highs and lows of their training. Mary, one of the nurses interviewed on this episode, talks about her motivations around nursing and how she refused, against her mother’s wishes, to train in a Catholic hospital, run by nuns in Ireland. She arrived not long after the end of World War II and the birth of the NHS. Her training was regimental yet she remembers some comedic moments she holds dear from her time training. Four more voices bring their stories of adjusting to their new lives and their memories of their training.

Credits:

Music: ‘Resonance’ by Amala Reidun Schlesinger & Paul de Grae

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.