A Milltown Midwife Remembered: The Story of Nurse Sarah Ann Clarke

This biography of Nurse Sarah Ann Clarke was created as part of the National Museum of Ireland’s “Remembering Our Community Midwives” exhibition, which honours the lives and legacies of local midwives who served communities across Ireland.

Sarah Ann Clarke (née Lavery) was born in Carnalbanagh East, Moira, Co. Down, on 29 April 1892. She trained as a nurse at the Mater Hospital, Belfast, and later worked as a district nurse in the Springfield Road area of the city. She married James Clarke, a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary, and following his retirement in the late 1920s they moved to Moylough, Co. Galway.

In 1931 she was appointed midwife to the southern Connemara district, serving Lettermore, Lettermullen, Gorumna and the Aran Islands. Her work required resilience, with travel by bicycle, pony and trap, or currach. In 1935 she moved to Milltown, Co. Galway, where she worked as midwife in the Tuam and Dunmore dispensary districts until her retirement in the late 1950s.

Nurse Clarke is remembered as a skilled and compassionate midwife who delivered generations of Milltown babies. Locals recall her cycling the roads on her “high nelly” bicycle with her medical bag in the front basket. She was also deeply caring, once staying up all night with a gravely ill neighbour until her passing.

After retiring, she returned to Belfast. Nurse Clarke died in June 1973 and is buried in Moira, Co. Down. Her story can be viewed on our website: www.milltown.galwaycommunityheritage.org.