Accessing Empire: Irish surgeons and the Royal Navy, 1850-1880

This article considers the role played by Irish and Catholic surgeons in the Royal Navy during the second half of the nineteenth century. Ireland’s significant links with imperial medicine has thrown up important questions about the extent to which religiosity, national identity and loyalty were incorporated and understood within the context of imperial defence and public health reform. A case study of two brothers from Belfast, Richard and Frederick McClement, and some of their Irish medical colleagues, bring these issues into sharper focus.