When Emily married in 1905 she gave up nursing as a career, although she still nursed her husband, Captain Edward Weddall, through bouts of an illness he picked up on his travels. When he died in 1908, she did not return to her career, but focused her time and energies on the Irish language revival and Gaelic League.

When there was an outbreak of typhus in 1913 Emily did not waste a minute but rushed to Connemara to lend her nursing services the victims, especially those from Gaelteacht, who only spoke Irish. Emily’s heroic action was reported on by the Irish Independent;

Mrs. Emily M. Weddall,Widow of the late Captain Weddall of Burnby,Yorkshire, and Rockfield House, Keel, Achill, who has hastened to Connemara to nurse the fever-stricken victims there

The site where the fever hospital in Oughterard one stood

. Founder of the Achill Irish Summer School, who is best known in Gaelic circles as Bean Ui Uadal, and it is for the sake of this last remnant of the Irish-speaking nation she is making such a heroic sacrifice.

When Emily arrived on in Connemara (Oughterard) she was appalled at the authorities neglect of the area. He strong social conscience, compelled her to write and highlight the problem. She put pen to paper and composed the following letter to the Cliadheamh Soulis.

I came away last week to help look after the poor typhus patients here. I found all the typhus cases in Oughterard Fever Hospital, and only a few typhoid patients (who can’t be moved) in their own homes. I was going to write to you to ask you to insist on the establishment of a temporary hospital into which fresh cases (which are sure to occur) could be moved, but today the government representatives have at last arrived on the scene, Mr Birrrell, Sir Acheson McCullagh (Local Government Board), John Fitzgibbon, M.P., C.D.B., and Mr. O’Malley M.P. for the district. The doctor tells me that they have provided the hospital, and it is about time! The people have been treated worse than beasts should be treated, and they are almost all that remains to us of the unsullied ancient Irish race. I am glad the Gaelic League was first on the scene, but we ought to do something efficient to preserve these people and to enable them to find a livelihood in their own country…

The letter shows the beginning of Emily more involved in politics, and it would be because of that, that Emily would be back using her nursing skill again.

Sources

Irish Independent 1905-2011 Date:May 21, 1913;Section:None;Page Number:3

An Claidheamh Soluis May 1913. p 8

When Emily began her training as a nurse Miss Margaret Huxley R.G.N. had just taken station in in Sir Patrick Dunns Hospital.  Like Florence Nightingale, Miss Huxley revolutionised nursing, especially in Ireland. She had taken up her position at Sir Patrick Dun’s just before Emily began her training. Now doubt her methods would have impacted Emily’s early nursing days, and stayed with her all her life.

As part of her pioneering work she established Sir Patrick Dun’s School of Nursing as the leading Nursing School in Ireland. Through this school and in cooperation with other training schools she continually strove to raise the educational standards of nurses and by extension the status of nursing in Ireland and abroad.

 

Margaret Huxley’s obituary of February 1940 in the British Journal of Nursing

In 1883 she came to Ireland, from that time until her death all her interests were centred in this country. Her first post was that of Matron of the National Eye and Ear Hospital, Molesworth Street, Dublin, where she remained for less than a year. The Board of Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital, having heard of her worth, appointed her their Lady Superintendent, which post she held until 1902.

Systematic training for Nurses was non-existent when Miss Huxley took up duty at Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital, but it was not long before the Nurses trained by her were everywhere in demand throughout the country.
In 1891, while still Lady Superintendent of Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital, realising the need for nursing care and medical and surgical treatment for private patients, she acquired an ordinary dweling-house and opened it as the first Nursing Home in this country. she formed a company to run it, and trained Nurses were appointed to staff it and at the same time, some of the probationers from Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital were sent there to gain experience in the care of private patients.

Miss Huxley worked ceaselessly for a uniform system of education and training for Nurses, and for State Registration. this book both time and money. In 1893, with the help of Dr. Richard Hayes, she was instrumental in starting a Central School where the nurses in training in a large number of the Dublin Hospitals received Lecture, and were examined. this school was ready, when State Registration came, to carry on and give all the theoretical truing required for the State Examinations, and it has proved of inestimable value to the nurses in training, and to the participating hospitals.

Nursing in Emily’s time

It is easy to see Miss Huxley’s influence on Emily career on many occasions. Years later, when Emily had officially retired from nursing she made a comeback, when her services were required. In 1913, when typhus broke out in an Irish speaking area of Connemara, Emily went to the fever hospital to lend her services, as she could speak to the patients in their native tongue, making easier for them to communicate, easing their suffering. That is only one example of many.

Sources

http://www.oscailtmagazine.com/unitarian%20magazine/Great%20Woman.html

http://rcnarchive.rcn.org.uk/data/VOLUME088-1940/page027-volume88-february1940.pdf retrieved 02/06/2014

An Cliamheadh Soulis, July 1915

An Cliamheadh Soulis 21/06/1913

The Lady with the Lamp

A generation before Emily nursing had become a reputable career for young women. Florence nightingale had made a name for herself and revolutionized the profession.

During the Crimean War, a public fund for training nurses was set up . With the money raised the Nightingale School at  St Thomas’ Hospital was opened in 1860.

Florence became actively involved in the Nightingale School at St Thomas’ in the 1870’s in order to avert a crisis. The first student nurses or ‘probationers’ were receiving little formal training. A student from Sweden complained that in eights months she had learned only how “to be obedient and humble and not to think much of herself” The drop out rate was alarmingly high.

Once Florence learned this she set about reform, appointing a new sister and involving St Thomas surgeon, John Croft, to give lectures and set examinations.

With that her nurses were known world wide and took up positions as matrons. There was a branch in Ireland too, perhaps Emily had contact with them, as part of her training or may have reached a level of competence as a nurse that she could register with the Nightingale Nurses to find employment.

Many went on to lead the reform of nursing and raise it’s status as a profession. In Isold ni Dheirg, Emily’s biographer suggests that Emily may have had some training with the Nightingale Nurses in London after she finished at Sir Patrick Dunns Hospital or travel to the continent when she nursed in France and Germany.

Sources

Ní Dheirg, Íosold. Emily M. Weddall: Bunaitheoir Scoil Acla. Beann Éadair, Baile Átha Cliath: Coiscéim, 2010.

http://rcnarchive.rcn.org.uk/data/VOLUME088-1940/page027-volume88-february1940.pdf retrieved 02/06/2014

Photographs curtesy of the Florence Nightingale Museum, London