Colourful history of country's first nurses' union documented in new book

Marriage proposals from men seeking good wives; butter, milk and potatoes as part payment of wages - such are the anecdotes that populate the pages of a new social history documenting the colourful history of the country's first nurses' trade union.

Launching his book, a Century of Service: A History of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation 1919-2019, author Mark Loughrey outlines how appalling working conditions prompted a group of 20 nurses and midwives to gather in South Anne St, Dublin, in 1919, where they agreed to formally establish the Irish Nurses' Union.