The Irish Immigrants Who Built Britain's NHS
Irish History Podcast
Fin Dwyer
4.7 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 3 September 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the 1960s, over 30,000 Irish immigrants were working in Britain’s National Health Service (NHS). While the NHS is often celebrated as one of Britain’s greatest achievements, the vital contributions of these Irish nurses are frequently overlooked. In this episode, I’m joined by Professor Louise Ryan, co-author of Irish Nurses in the NHS: An Oral History, to discuss the experiences of these remarkable women.
Louise shares how, for many Irish nurses, Britain offered opportunities unimaginable at home. Yet, despite their essential role in building the NHS, they often faced racism and discrimination.
Get Irish Nurses in the NHS: An Oral History by Louise Ryan, Gráinne Mac Polin, and Neha Doshi: Four Courts Press
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Sound by Kate Dunlea
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What inspired the serene images we all know of the Buddha? |
| 0:03.0 | Where does the image of the playful God Ganesha with his elephant head come from? |
| 0:08.0 | Discover remarkable stories from ancient India in this major new exhibition, |
| 0:12.0 | now open at the British Museum. |
| 0:14.0 | Be transported back more than 2,000 years through the breathtaking early art of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. |
| 0:22.0 | Ancient India Living Traditions runs until the 19th of October. |
| 0:26.1 | Book your tickets at Britishmuseum.org slash ancient India. |
| 0:35.1 | In 1945, Britain emerged from the Second World War, deeply scarred by the conflict. |
| 0:44.1 | Although Britain had played a central role in the Allied victory, its cities had been bombed and the British Empire was in steep decline. |
| 0:52.0 | In this climate, the creation of the National Health Service, the NHS, a free public health system in the late 1940s, became the source of major pride in the United Kingdom. |
| 1:03.0 | Indeed, over the last 75 years, the NHS has consistently remained one of the most popular institutions in Britain and is considered one of the |
| 1:12.1 | great British achievements of the post-war period. However, this narrative often neglects to mention |
| 1:17.9 | the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who built the NHS after its creation. It's often forgotten |
| 1:24.4 | in the 1940s and 50s many British people found the NHS an undesirable career, |
| 1:30.0 | and it fell to these immigrants to help build the National Health Service. |
| 1:34.7 | Now, they included tens of thousands of Irish women. |
| 1:38.3 | In the 1960s, there were over 30,000 Irish nurses staffing Britain's health system. |
| 1:46.6 | They were over 10% of the entire workforce, |
| 1:53.6 | and in this episode, I'll be exploring the story of these Irish women who helped to build the NHS. Hello and welcome to the Irish History podcast. My name is Finn DeWar. And today I have an absolutely |
| 2:08.0 | intriguing conversation for you. So recently I interviewed Professor Louise Ryan. Louise co-authored |
| 2:14.9 | Irish nurses in the NHS and oral history with Grona MacPolene and Neha Doshi. |
| 2:21.1 | Their book is based around 45 interviews with Irish nurses who helped to build the NHS and today Louise shares some of the fascinating experiences of these women. |
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