ST HELENS had some special visitors from across the Irish Sea last week who were making an “emotional” return to the town.

A dozen former nurses, who trained at the old Providence Hospital during the 1960s, were in town. Although four have now settled in the area and live in the town, or nearby, eight were making a special visit to see their old stamping ground, with some making a first return in more than 40 years.

Staying in Liverpool for three nights after arriving last Wednesday, they spent Thursday going round the town seeing some of their old favourite haunts.

“We went to the Providence and took lots of photographs and they reminisced about the time spent in St Helens,” said Theresa McNamara, who lives in Moss Bank and was one of the nurses who trained there.

“We went round St Helens and visited Holy Cross and Lowe House churches and also to the Theatre Royal where we got free tickets into shows.

“We all trained between 1964 and 1969 and some of them had never been back before and had come over from all over Ireland. It was very emotional.”

During their training they had all been under the tutelage of the legendary Sister Kathleen Duffy.

“We saw her name on the plaque in the town hall which was great. She was strict to us but gave us very good training at Providence.

“They were all happy days and we were all one big family. We were very young when we came to the town and the people of St Helens were very kind to us.”