In search of district nurses

Madam, – It was with great pleasure I read Muiris Houston’s entertaining Irishman’s Diary (May 16th)

Madam, – It was with great pleasure I read Muiris Houston’s entertaining Irishman’s Diary (May 16th). I personally discovered the Jubilee and Lady Dudley’s nurses, in the archives of Airfield House, Dundrum, Dublin 14, four years ago. After much digging in many original archives I am finalising a book, to be published next year, recording this forgotten Irish social history. I have been astonished by the number of these privately-funded district nurses throughout the country in the period 1891-1973.

The people who toiled in the voluntary committees, who supported these nurses, have been very difficult to find. I would love to talk to those who remember the fundraising, the meetings and their own memories of the very special women that were called Lady Dudley and Jubilee Nurses. They can contact me at the address below.

– Yours, etc,

ELIZABETH PRENDERGAST, elizabethprendergastartist@gmail.com, 9 Victoria Avenue, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.