From Ireland to the NHS: Whittington exhibition honours Irish nurses past and present
31 Oct 2025
A new exhibition celebrating the vital contribution of people of Irish heritage to the National Health Service will open at Whittington Hospital from 3 to 18 December 2025.
Full story
A new exhibition celebrating the vital contribution of people of Irish heritage to the National Health Service will open at Whittington Hospital from 3 to 18 December 2025.
The exhibition features powerful photographs by Fiona Freund and first-hand testimonies gathered by Professor Louise Ryan, Gráinne McPolin and Neha Doshi, authors of Irish Nurses in the NHS: An Oral History. It highlights the stories of Irish nurses who helped shape the NHS from its earliest years to today.
From the founding of the NHS in 1948, Irish women and men were actively recruited to train and work as nurses in hospitals across Britain. By the 1960s, around 30,000 Irish-born nurses were working in the NHS, about 12% of the entire nursing workforce.
The exhibition captures their experiences in their own words, exploring both the challenges and rewards of their lives as healthcare professionals and as Irish migrants.
Today, Whittington Health NHS Trust continues to value and celebrate colleagues of Irish heritage who now work across a wide range of clinical and non-clinical roles. Their contribution is part of a long tradition of diversity and inclusion that reflects the communities the Trust serves across north London.
Selina Douglas, Chief Executive of Whittington Health NHS Trust, said: “The NHS has always been built on the skill, compassion and commitment of people from around the world. Colleagues of Irish heritage have made an immense contribution to our health service right from its creation and they remain an important part of our shared history. At Whittington Health, we’re proud of our diverse workforce, past, present and future, which reflects the vibrant and diverse communities that we are so proud serve.”
Professor Louise Ryan, Senior Professor of Sociology and Director of the Global Diversities and Inequalities Research Centre at London Metropolitan University who has curated the exhibition said: “It is truly exciting to display the photos of Irish nurses at the Whittington Hospital. Our exhibition includes four nurses who worked at the hospital, over many decades, and this is a fitting tribute to their years of dedication to the NHS.”
Whittington Hospital is also home to a permanent memorial to Windrush and Commonwealth nurses and midwives, installed at the hospital’s main entrance in 2021. Together, these tributes recognise the generations of international and multicultural colleagues whose dedication has shaped and sustained the NHS.
The Irish Nurses in the NHS exhibition will be open to staff, patients and the local community in the hospital’s 4th floor atrium from 3 to 18 December 2025. Entry is free.
Photo credit: Bernie Naughton
We sometimes use Artificial Intelligence to assist us in creating content as efficiently as possible. In line with the Trust's acceptable use of AI policy, all AI generated content is checked by the communications team before it is published.