This unique monograph, based on empirical research, used the oral history approach to explore the careers of 31 intellectual disability nurses from England and the Republic of Ireland; each with at least 30 years'' experience.<div><br></div> We sought to understand motives for such long service to nursing practice. Some had worked in the intellectual disability hospitals of the 19th and 20th Centuries. In both jurisdictions these have almost closed and been replaced with smaller living configurations; subsequently few such nurses have experience of these institutions. This makes it important to hear their stories, which were digitally recorded; now forming a unique collection in the Royal College of Nursing''s archives. These oral histories when synthesised with prevailing discourse of intellectual disability nursing from literature, and research put into perspective contemporary nursing workforce challenges faced by these nurses in both jurisdictions. Their stories are testament, amon