A series of files in the Minute Paper Collection (MP/1/6/75) highlight the financial support provided by Irish Lights from 1933-1940 to a scheme known at the Queens Jubilee Nurse. Irish Lights provided £20 annually to support the placement of a Queens Jubilee Nurse on Clare Island.

The Queens Jubilee Nurses pre-dated, but essentially carried out the same functions as a Public Health Nurse today. They were stationed in rural communities, and for many isolated communities along the West Coast, they provided the first link to formal healthcare. The Nurses were often young women, as the marriage bar for female Civil Servants prevented married women from taking on the role. The role carried great responsibility and was often carried out in challenging conditions without running water and proper sanitation. The Nurses travelled from house to house by bicycle caring for the sick and elderly, and delivering babies.

The importance of the Clare Island Nurse cannot be underestimated. In 1936 the population of Clare Island was 361 and from the statistics provided for 1937 we can see that the nurse made a total of 2,910 visits to general and maternity patients; Tuberculosis patients; Child Welfare Scheme; as well as Schools and School Children.

The Keepers were vocal in their support of having a nurse stationed on the island and wrote annual letters emphasising the need for Irish Lights to continue its financial support of the Jubilee Nurses scheme. In 1935 Principal Keeper C. McNelis writes ‘it is of great benefit to a man with a family to know he has the nurses services at hand as during the winter months in case of anyone getting ill the Dr. through stress of weather might not be able to get to the Island, therefore it is a great thing to know he has the nurses services to rely on'. Additionally the Keepers submitted annual returns of Nurses visits to the Lighthouse Station detailing the number and reason for visits. The Nurses visits were predominantly to the wives and children of the Keepers rather than the Keepers themselves.

The Irish Lights Minute Papers are an important source for the social history of rural Ireland. These files give us a snapshot of rural healthcare in the 1930s and the position of responsibility that nurses held. For isolated communities like Clare Island the nurses were literally a lifeline.
‍