If women ruled the world....?
Television documentaries have become an invaluable source of information about all sorts of topics. Two excellent such programmes have been screened on our televisions recently. Both focus on women. One relates to nurses, the other to nuns.
Apart from those that reveal shocking war scenes in Gaza and Ukraine, these two documentaries remind us of positive achievements and of the normal people who work to make the world a better place. Like any modern art form, these programmes draw public attention to under-reported and often unheralded human actions and sometimes also to beautiful places.
Nurses
"Emerald Nightingales: Irish Nurses and the NHS" (1) recounts the story of "a vital pillar of the U.K's National Health Service." The nurses helped shape its early development in the aftermath of World War 2 following establishment of the new health service in 1948.
The documentary illustrates that the question of staffing shortages soon became apparent. As a consequence, recruitment campaigns were begun all across Ireland in national and also local newspapers, resulting in ten of thousands of people from across the island joining the new institution to work.
Numerous impressive accounts of their constructive role emerge of working in hospital maternity units, A&E, and across the entire health service. It shows them bringing nursing care, resilience and professionalism to a brand new and evolving system of healthcare in Britain. The programme features interviews conducted by Dr Tom McGorrian of Buckinghamshire New University (BNU) with surviving nurses from that era. BNU produced the documentary (2).
The programme makers' use of old black and white film clips of nurses at work adds especially to the story's austere post-war atmosphere. Surviving nurses regale viewers with tales of their youthful rural Irish lives being changed beyond recognition by moving from isolated rural familial communities to all parts of Great Britain often in unfamiliar metropolitan settings.
They carefully recall their varied career paths over many years, and explain how they discovered their aptitude and love for nursing. In the midst of the challenges of settling into new workplaces and of eventually managing to find time even for social life, tales of frustration emerge in some cases. Not least was having to deal with jibes when the Troubles arrived in England in the 1970's.
All in all, the ten or so women nurses interviewed all came across as sincere, patient, conscientious, eloquent, caring, empathetic, and resilient - exactly what would be expected. To this non-medical viewer, they provided an exemplary advertisement for the nursing profession as well as for their home country - and also, for womanhood. Most of those featured had long dedicated careers, unwilling (unintentionally reflecting the life of nuns) to terminate vocationally rewarding duties. It would be difficult verging on impossible to find a flaw in their heart-warming accounts.
My interest in the documentary had been piqued by a couple of earlier books written by an ex-nurse and close friend about the role of nurses here in Northern Ireland. One deals with how they managed during the challenging times of the Northern Ireland Troubles (3) from 1969 and onwards through three subsequent decades; while the more recent book focuses on their work during challenges presented by World War Two (4). Nursing in bellicose circumstances will have been abnormal, not at all easy, but inspirationally described by the authors.
Both books are written from the nurses' professional perspectives in their own words; and both have been published in association with the Royal College of Nurses. Their testimonies, like those outlined in the BNU documantary, preserve their achievements of working in difficult circumstances as reminders in a series of well-articulated encounters exemplifying nurses' dedication and heroism.
Nuns
"The Hills are Alive a year at Kylemore Abbey" (5) highlights the fantastic work being done by Benedictine nuns in Connemara County Galway. The story is presented as a three-part documentary. After explaining the arrival of the order from Ypres in Belgium in 1920, the programme concentrates on the nuns' more recent efforts to improve their Irish base by uplifting the community and its natural surrounds.
My interest in watching the series had been aroused by the chance discovery of Kylemore Abbey about 20 years ago when driving round western Connaught as a tourist. Suddenly I was awestruck at the sight of this magnificent building in its majestic setting - Kylemore Castle. The nuns had converted Kylemore to an Abbey while also making provision for an all-girls school. At that time there was no specific drive or attention paid to catering for tourism.
Kylemore Castle (6) had been built in the late 1800's by Mitchell Henry (1826-1910), the M.P at Westminster for Co Galway from 1871 to 1885. Its grounds comprise of about 1,000 acres which include a 6-acre walled garden, stables for Connemara ponies, extensive woodland and lakeshore walks, a neo-Gothic Church near the Abbey and a Mausoleum where Mr Henry and his wife are buried side by side. Nuns who have died have also been interred in the peaceful cemetry.
The documentary explains how the Benedictine order subsequently recognised the need to attend to the upkeep and improvement of their ageing building; and also to find ways to restore the extensive grounds and its forestry, given added impetus by the imperatives of climate change. The turnaround in the area's prospects must be one of rural Ireland's most remarkable modern stories.
Rather than making any claims about entrepreneurship, a term not once used in the documentary, the sisters have redeveloped the Abbey and its grounds as a community project. The result is that Kylemore Abbey has become a popular destination for international visitors, with huge numbers now arriving in coach parties especially in summer months. It's well worth a visit.
The Abbey also provides other incidental events ranging from lace-making demonstrations presented by nuns, to talks on different topics and occasional musical events. The documentary reveals the high quality of locally produced recipés and other food for both diners and shoppers in addition to many craft and miscellaneous items for sale.
The underlying purpose of the works is to facilitate the nuns' monastic life as well as their role in providing for visiting pilgrims. Apart from the religious aspects, the nuns' outward-looking approach and initiatives have benefited the local community through the provision of job opportunities across a range of activities. In the documentary, the nuns emphasise the community and their religious duties as their motivation.
"The Hills are Alive" programme is a life-affirming story demonstrating the almost literally unbelievable results that can emerge from recognising the potential of what we have. Teamwork, dedication, attention to detail and respect for the environment - never mind a few prayers and novenas - all help.
What a story - and like the nurses, such impressive women. It begs the titular question above.
Perhaps it was ladies like these nurses and nuns that William Shakespeare had in mind when he said
"The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away."
© Michael McSorley 2025
References
1. TV doc "Emerald Nightingales" produced by Buckinghamshire New University, Pinewood Studios. RTÉ Player August 2025
2. Website www.bucks.ac.uk
3. Book "Nurses Voices from the Northern Ireland Troubles. Personal accounts from the front line." Margaret Graham & Prof Jean Orr RCN Middlesex 2013
4. Book "Nurses Voices from the Second World War - the Ireland Connection." Seán Graffin & Margaret Graham RCN NI Oct 2023
5. TV doc https://www.rte.ie/player/series/the-hills-are-alive--a-year-at-kylemore-abbey/10011254-00-0000?epguid=IP10011262-01-0001
6. Website https://trust.kylemoreabbey.com/?_gl=1%2A133bduw%2A_gcl_au%2ANzc3NzEwMzU4LjE3NTY1NjQ3NTI.%2A_ga%2AODM0MDY2NjUuMTc1NjU2NDc1Mg..%2A_ga_C5NG9HCSXX%2AczE3NTY1NjQ3NzQkbzEkZzEkdDE3NTY1NjQ4OTUkajMxJGwwJGgw&_ga=2.256080140.60596773.1756564752-83406665.1756564752
