Friday 21 July 2006

Agnes Jones.

Bronagh Gallagher from Londonderry, who appeared in Pulp Fiction, The Commitments and Star Wars Episode 1, has a new challenge.
She is playing the lead role in a drama documentary about Donegal-born nurse Agnes Jones.
Agnes cared for thousands of emigrants who left Irish shores to escape the Famine.
"Agnes Jones was the founder of Irish nursing, she was one of the first 12 nurses trained by Florence Nightingale after the Crimean war," she said.
"She is largely forgotten in Ireland because after she trained, she spent her ministry in Liverpool amongst Irish famine emigrants."

Agnes Jones helped transform workhouses into safe havens where famine emigrants from Ireland got quality care when they got off the Liverpool boat.
Bronagh Gallagher is delighted to play this little known heroine.
"This woman revolutionised sanitation and workhouse hospitals, yet nobody knows about her," she said.
"She ended up in Liverpool and was there to mother the famine victims who were dumped on Liverpool docks because they were too sick to travel on to the 'new world'".