Dorothy spoke about the expectations of girls in the west of Ireland in the 1970s and her ambition for more…

“I remember once when I was about sixteen and a half, Molly M. who was the teacher at the time had become a careers advisor while she was at school. We were all about fifteen and a half— sixteen and we were in a shoe shaped, horseshoe shaped position in the classroom. And she went around one by one and asked us all what it is we would like to be when we left school. And there was not one variation between either a teacher or a nurse. That was the scope of our ambition. Not that we weren't ambitious, but that was the scope of what it was that women did then. And Molly M. then brought out this sort of psychometric test— Molly M. was a great teacher, not a great careers advisor but there you go — which we all did, and I remember [laughs], when I had done mine [laughs], she said I would either be a really good cook— I should work in the catering— you know be a good cook, and I can't remember what the other one was, and I was just horrified I thought well I've got more ambition than that. As it turns out, I happen to be really passionate about cooking but that's neither here nor there…..

I read some book when I was in my young teens, I think it was "How Green is My Valley," I could be completely wrong, and it was about this miner's son from the Welsh valleys who worked his arse off to avoid going into the mines and ended up going to Oxford or somewhere. Now I knew I wasn't headed for those dizzy heights but I knew that before I left I had to make sure I had a good education because two of my sisters had gone to England in the fifties, both to train as nurses and neither of them— neither of them finished. One because she got married and when you got married you had to leave, the other because she just didn't enjoy it. So, I remember one day a friend of mine knocking on the door saying, "oh look I got all these leaflets for nursing and hospitals in England, in London" and I thought I'll have a look at them. I didn't know — what I did know that I really wanted to get an education so I knuckled down in my last year…

I did alright and when I got my—  I applied very quietly with no one knowing to two hosp— three hospitals in London, not knowing anything about them except they were within about fifteen— twenty minutes from my sister. One in Kingston, one in Ealing and one I think— I can't remember … I wrote to them when I was sixteen, independently. I told them I was sitting my exams. How much I wanted to be a nurse which was slightly untrue because I didn't really. And then, when I got my leaving cert results when I was seventeen and a half in the August— I was a bit young to be taking it, I wrote them a letter straight away and within a week I had gotten offers from Kingston and Ealing. I chose Ealing. Didn't want to interview me but they wanted me to start the following year when I had turned eighteen. So I had a year to kill.  So, I still didn't tell my— I told my mother but I didn't tell my father. And then one—  the day that I did tell him, I said, "I'm going to England I'm going to be a nurse" he turned round and said to me, "no, you're not, you're the youngest. You're going to stay home and you're going to look after your mother and your father until we die, and I'll get you a job in the bank." And I looked him in the eye and I thought to myself, no frigging way, I am out of here.”

Dorothy was interviewed by her daughter, Emily. Dorothy’s interview tells a story of growing up as the youngest of 10 children in a West of Ireland family where the experience of love, loyalty and fun were set against the backdrop of significant family dysfunction and conflict with her father. This is underscored with rich commentary on the impact and prevalence more broadly of the restrictive and oppressive influences of the Catholic Church. In her interview, Dorothy describes a liberating move from Ireland to London in the late 1970s and includes some critical reflection on the attitudes of the time to being Irish in England. Her early ambition for and success in nursing, alongside Dorothy’s love and talent for theatre are strong themes as are settling in London and ‘growing’ a family.

For more information on accessing Dorothy’s full interview or transcript please email faisneis@unaganaguna.org