MOST OF THE nurses we interviewed had been recruited directly from Ireland to go and train in various hospitals across Britain. As they embarked on their careers, most were around 18 years of age, had recently left school, and had never been away from home before. In this chapter, we hear their stories of that initial journey from Ireland to Britain.

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, as we will see below, 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. For some, this was about fulfilling their long-held dream of becoming a nurse, while for others, it was about the opportunities to get away from rural Ireland and experience the bright lights and excitement of cities like London or Liverpool. However, as we will hear later in this chapter, their first impressions did not always live up to their expectations.

This chapter begins with memories of their initial journey to Britain including rough sea-crossings on cattle boats as well as some intrepid travel on aeroplanes.

‘What an adventure’: Stories of the first journey

Although it was a defining moment in their lives, some nurses had only vague recollections of that first initial journey from Ireland to Britain.

Dervla: “That was in January, I can’t remember the exact date”.

Pauline: “I’m really trying to think. I must have flown really but I honestly don’t know how I got there either, it’s all very vague”.

Trisha: ”I can’t remember how I came over, whether I flew or whether I went on the boat”.

With the passage of time, precise details about events that occurred more than 50 years ago can become hazy and imprecise. Considering that our interviewees travelled back and forth to Ireland at least once per year, or indeed, several times per year, for the rest of their lives, it is not too surprising that they cannot recall the exact dates and details of their first journey.

However, by contrast, others had very clear memories of the day, month and year of their first journey to Britain. In such cases, their memories were usually helped by the fact that the date held some particular significance, such as being close to their birthday, and hence was easier to recall.

For example, Bronagh remembered the date very clearly, “On 12 March 1965, which was three days before my 18th birthday. I came on the Sunday and Tuesday was my 18th birthday”. Student nurses needed to be 18 before they could commence training, hence, many arrived on or just before this birthday. Fidelma recalled arriving in March 1966: “I wasn’t even 18 then. My birthday was in April”.

Mary Hazard, in nurse uniform 1952. Four Courts Four Courts

Aine remembered the date because it was unusual and stuck in her mind: “Two of my friends came with me as well, and we flew into Liverpool on 29 February 1968, a leap year”.

For almost all these teenagers, it was not only their first time out of Ireland, but in several cases, this was also their first trip alone outside their own towns and villages.

While some, like Aine above, travelled with friends, others made the journey completely on their own.

Niamh described leaving Roscommon, on her own, at the age of 18, and making the long journey to Yorkshire via Dublin and Liverpool.

“June 1958, I set off by myself on the train to Dublin which I’d never been to before. Made my way to the North Wall to get the boat to Liverpool. Really, if I think about it now, I hadn’t a clue. I was very naïve. I had never used a telephone. I had never seen a traffic light.

“When I got off the boat in Liverpool, I think somebody must have been watching over me because I met a lady as I was walking off the boat and she asked me where I was going and I said I was going to Leeds and she was from the Catholic Nurses Guild, would you believe it?… She came with me into the station at Liverpool and put me on the train to Leeds.”

Nora and Tony Hayward, wedding day 1954. Four Courts Four Courts

Niamh recalled how she felt as she embarked on this momentous journey: “I cried all the way to Athlone and then I thought to myself well there’s no point in crying now because I’m going and that’s it. I think I was naïve really and I just thought, oh, I’d be okay. When I think about it now, it was really brave of me”.

For us in the twenty-first century, it does seem somewhat unimaginable that an 18-year-old would set off alone, without the aid of a telephone, to make such a long journey to a completely unfamiliar destination. But, as Niamh explained, her naivety probably meant that she felt no sense of danger and somehow trusted that it would all be ‘okay’.

Longing for home

Several young women explained that they had mixed feelings about leaving home. For example, Eilish set off for Leeds to join her sister, who was also a nurse, in the early 1970s: “Even though it was hard leaving home, it was exciting as well”. Moreover, her parents were relieved that the older sister would look after her: “My mum and dad were happy that we were going to be with each other”.

Ethel Corduff, outside hospital building 1966.

For some of the nurses, leaving home was a deeply emotional experience and they still have vivid memories of how they felt on that particular day…

“I’ll never forget it as long as I live. They brought me to the door. There were tears and tears and tears and tears and tears because being the only girl everybody was sad to see me go, I suppose, particularly my mum… My mother was heartbroken”, Fiona told us.

Similarly, Fidelma recalled: ‘Oh, terrible, absolutely heart-breaking. Even now I think of it. When we actually came to be saying goodbye, that was it, I didn’t want to go”.

A few felt deeply nervous and anxious about leaving home and setting off for an unfamiliar destination. Helen explained, “I was worried, worried sick… I was nervous, yes, coming on the boat”.

Indeed, arriving in Britain, especially disembarking from the ferry in the middle of the night, hardly inspired them with enthusiasm. Caitriona described her feelings upon arriving on the harbour in Wales on a cold January morning in 1960: “When I arrived at Holyhead at three in the morning, if I could have gone back to Ireland, I would have gone back, it was so dark and so miserable”.

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. 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 travelling on the boats. Carmel, originally from the North of Ireland, travelled from Belfast by boat: “I always remember how lonesome when we got off that big boat. We sailed from Belfast to Liverpool”.

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Teresa Doherty, in uniform 1955. Four Courts Four Courts

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…

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.

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 made the journey from Cork through most of the 1900s.

It is estimated that around one million people emigrated from Ireland, via Cork, 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 journey, 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!”

Noreen Schierz and nursing cohort, 1961. Four Courts Four Courts

Similarly, Sheila, who also sailed from Cork on the Innisfallen, 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”.

Among our participants, there were several who had grown up in children’s homes. For these young people, nurse training offered an escape route out of their unhappy lives in Ireland. As one nurse stated emphatically: “I was so glad to get out of Ireland, and I swore I’d never go back.”

Phil Ellen Donovan, on the wards, c.1975. Four Courts Four Courts

While, in fact, she did go back to visit Ireland many times in later life, her strongest emotion as she embarked on that first journey was one of relief to get away.

Across all the 45 interviews, many nurses talked about this spirit of adventure and embarking on their journey without thinking too much about the risks. As Bronagh explained:

“So I was 17 and yeah, very limited experience and had a very sheltered upbringing, so totally oblivious to this big wide world out there… I had no experience of what I might even encounter that I might be frightened of. So, it all just seemed exciting.”

Irish Nurses in the NHS: An Oral History by Louise Ryan, Grainne McPolin and Neha Doshi is out now, published by Four Courts Press, 2025.