Paulina Irby was a disciple of Florence Nightingale and a pan-Slavic sympathizer. From 1861-1864 she with Georgina Muir MacKenzie traveled through the Slavic provinces held by Turkey, writing anonymous articles about the state of affairs in the region. They raised funds in England for training Bosnian teachers and in 1870 founded a school in Sarajevo for Christian girls, which Irby ran from 1871-1911. After Yugoslavia was created as a country in 1918, she was adopted as a heroine by the country.