We analyze the ground state of the open spin-1/2 isotropic quantum spin chain with a non-diagonal boundary term using a recently proposed Bethe ansatz solution. As the coefficient of the non-diagonal boundary term tends to zero, the Bethe roots split evenly into two sets: those that remain finite, and those that become infinite. We argue that the former satisfy conventional Bethe equations, while the latter satisfy a generalization of the Richardson-Gaudin equations. We derive an expression for the leading correction to the boundary energy in terms of the boundary parameters. ; Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures; v2: Figs 4 are improved; v3: reference added; v4: erratum added