The Troubles nurses marking a 50-year milestone

The former nurses and midwives started their careers at Belfast City Hospital

On 23 September 1974 a class of 140 nurses took their first steps in a "demanding, yet rewarding" career.

Almost 50 years later, 49 of the original class met up at a bar in Belfast to celebrate this milestone.

The former nurses and midwives started their careers at Belfast City Hospital, where all 140 spent their first three years in nursing accommodation at the height of the Troubles.

They spoke to BBC News NI about nursing life during some of the worst years of the violence, as well as differences in their role compared to nurses operating in the health system today.

"Of the original 140 it's great to have 49 here, many are scattered across the globe and five have since died," midwife Sharon Nurse said.

Ms Nurse, who was awarded a British Empire Medal in the King's Birthday Honours List for services to nursing and midwifery, said there had been big changes since the group first started working in the health service.

"It was a lot more personable. We would’ve carried out all of the bedside care, now a lot of it is delegated to health care assistants, so the nurses spend more time with the admin and the computer side of things," she said.

"Now nursing is more to the level of junior doctors, if not higher."

Former midwife Brenda Kinney said when she started working, "it was very much hands on, you treated the whole person from when you met them until they left".

"Now it’s a lot of delegation. If you made the mess, you cleaned it up," she said.

'The building shook'

Mrs Kinney said in their nurses' accommodation there were often bombings and bomb scares.

''We were close to the military wing at Musgrave Park, so every time a bomb went off, aimed at the wing, the building shook," she said.

"We had to be very careful even where we went at night. We made our own social life closer to the hospital.

"For the first years everyone had to stay in nursing accommodation, wardens on the door with an 11 o’clock curfew."

Former nurse Margret McAllister said they all got into the profession "to help sick people get better".

‘'The Troubles never factored into my decision making, it was always something I wanted to do," she said.

"The group had a reunion for the 25-year anniversary, it is the first time some have seen each other since then, there's a few I've not even seen for 47 years.'

'‘Nurses here have come from all across the globe to be here, from Rathlin island all the way to New Zealand."