In its early years, it met at the Trades Hall on Capel Street in Dublin, and was led by Harry Murtagh and James O'Neill.

[2] Gerard Doyle became secretary of the union in 1928, and under his leadership it was renamed as the Operative Plasterers Society.

In the 1950s, its main rival, the British-based National Association of Operative Plasterers, decided to withdraw from Ireland, and its Irish members transferred to the Dublin-based union, which took the name "Operative Plasterers and Allied Trades Society of Ireland" to reflect its broader remit.

In more recent times, the union have embarked on a campaign to highlight the issue of bogus self employment in the construction sector.

Plasterers have now been properly designated as employees in order to vindicate their rights as workers under law.