The Nurse's Collection Report - 1958/59

This is the Dunmore East District Nursing Association’s Annual Report and Balance Sheet for 1958/59, a small booklet that, more than sixty years later, provides something of a social record of the village.

Within its pages are the names of many of the people who were living in Dunmore East and the surrounding district at the time, along with the amounts they contributed to the Nurses Fund. In many ways, it reads like a roll call of the village at the end of the 1950s, familiar family names appearing one after another, some contributing a few shillings, others considerably more, but all helping towards the same cause.

The leaflet would have been distributed around the village after the annual collection, providing a clear account of what had been raised and, just as importantly, how the money had been spent. There was a strong sense of accountability in doing this. Everyone who had put something into the collection could see the final total and where the money had gone.

The accounts also give us a glimpse into the practical workings of the District Nursing Association. Money was required for the nurse’s salary, medicines, dressings, insurance, telephone costs, repairs to the nurse’s cottage and, in 1959, the purchase and running of a motor car. Nurse Barry’s district had been extended to include Passage East and Cheekpoint, making transport increasingly important.

Luckily, my mother held on to her copy of the report. Perhaps, in some far-sighted way, having noticed me collecting pictures from the RTE Guide, she may have suspected that I might eventually find a use for it. Whatever the reason, I am glad she did.

I shared these pages online previously, but I have now reproduced them in much higher quality, making the names and figures considerably clearer. 

What stands out most is the community spirit behind it all. These were people from every walk of life. Some had plenty, others had very little, but almost everyone appears to have contributed something. A pound, ten shillings, half a crown or whatever could be spared, it all went into the same fund.

It’s a simple document, but it tells an important story about the Dunmore East of that time, a village where people understood that looking after one another was a shared responsibility, and where rich and poor alike chipped in for the greater good.