Blackberries and Crubeens

Ethel Corduff (nee Walsh) was born  and brought up in Tralee, County Kerry. Her parents had a sweet shop. She was an avid reader visiting the Carnegie Library every day. She started writing while at primary school and published her first article age seventeen in The Kerryman. Leaving school at fifteen she worked in a number of shops in Tralee, Killarney and Dublin for seven years all the time  writing  short stories and articles, many of which were published. Ethel wrote a book in her teens which she spent years trying to get published and intends to revise it. An overnight decision to go nursing brought her to Staffordshire and after state registration she moved to Croydon, got married and had three children and later did a BSc (Hons). She became interested in  nursing history and this led her eventually to spend years researching and interviewing Irish nurses in Britain and eventually self published Ireland's Loss Britain's Gain