Seán Graffin, RCN Northern Ireland History of Nursing Network member, discussed how he collated a database of over 600 Irish nurses which will be available on the website of the Public Records office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). Margaret Graham talked through the stories of some of these nurses from a new book, Nurses’ Voices from the Second World War: the Ireland Connection.
"While I was looking absent-mindedly at the flotsam and jetsam which floated continually past the side of the ship that my eye caught sight of a large dark shape which slowly approached. I pointed it out to my companion and suddenly we both realised that it was a body, slowly and silently and gently bumping against the side of the ship. It floated past face downward and was quietly lost to view. "
Mary Kerr née Murphy (serving with the QAs), on landing in France following the D-Day landings
"Every night there were air raids sweeping over the roofs of the hospital… Water was a problem. A ration of brackish water washed us, then our clothes, then the floor of our rooms. ... The Medical staff warned us that as nurses we would have to forget our conservative attitude to morphia and other drugs and give them to all ill and nervous patients before the nightly raids…"
Norah Earls, TANS on the Fall of Tobruk
Images: (thumbnail) Book cover of the new book published by RCN Northern Ireland History of Nursing Forum