Fifty years ago a group of 140 nurses started training in Belfast in the middle of a decade that would prove to be the worst of the Troubles.
Starting together in September 1974, they were at Belfast City Hospital.
On Monday more than 50 of them met up again to mark the half century anniversary.
Main organisers Margaret McAlister, Brenda Kinney and Sharon Nurse told of how happy they were to have so many friends back together again.
“We started nursing 50 years ago to the date and we decided it was time to get together,” Mrs McAlister said.
“It was a lovely hospital — everybody knew each other, there was always a story to tell.
“We were one big family. Hence why we all wanted to get together again and reminisce.”
Reunion organisers Sharon Nurse, Margaret McAlister and Brenda Kinney
All of them began as student nurses when they were 17 or 18.
“Back then, you have to remember it was 1974 and the Troubles were at their height. It was daunting. We were teenagers going into it, straight out of school,” said Mrs Nurse.
“You hadn’t a clue when you first started, but through your training and experience you built your skills as a nurse. It’s very different today.
“We belonged to a hospital and we were part of a family and I think those ties have remained.”
Mrs McAlister said they learned a lot in a very short space of time.
She explained: “It’s an understanding that we’re all in it together and we’re all learning together at the same time, as well as the support we were getting from our tutors and clinical teachers — they were a great support.
“They went through the procedures the proper way they should be done”
The nurses photographed when they started their training 50 years ago
Around 100,000 people were injured during the Troubles.
“We were in Belfast at a very dangerous time and we saw some awful things. As far as our social life went, you just didn’t come into Belfast at night,” Mrs Nurse added.
“Even when you went home to your family, they don’t really understand the day you’ve had or maybe some of the traumatic things you’ve experienced.
“It was quite difficult to go home and talk to people outside about that, so we had our own internal network.
“In work we tended to support each other, and outside of it too.”
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One of the legacies of the Troubles was the effect on people’s mental health.
Mrs Nurse recounted how services had progressed from when they began their careers.
She added: “It maybe wasn’t there when we first trained.
“As we went on… there was recognised support there for those who had witnessed trauma.”
Mary Curry, now in her late 60s, started out along with the 140 others in the group.
After working here she continued her extensive nursing career in England, and even for an airline.
“In Belfast there was great camaraderie and a real sense of caring and looking after each other as well as our patients,” she said. “It was all about bringing out the best in people.”
Mary Curry bought a record player and two albums with her first pay packet in 1974
She recalled: “We did a lot of training and going back on the wards, so there was a good balance of both.
“We were very lucky to have great tutors and great guiders.
“I think also in those days there was one way to do it and that was the right way — and that’s what we did.
“It was the best nursing I ever did, the learning curve was fantastic, nothing got left unturned.”
The nurses were housed in Adelaide Street, where they spent a lot of their downtime.
Mrs Curry said: “My first pay packet was £90 and I went in on the bus to Belfast city centre and bought myself a record player and two albums.
“One was John Lennon’s Imagine and the other Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
“They went on every night, and I played, sang and danced to that.”
She added: “Considering we were the nurses from the Troubles, I think we’ve come a long way and I think it stands to show today what we have achieved in those 50 years.”