File 11 - Copy Letter Book

A volume containing copy and draft correspondence of Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap. The file contains copies of his personal letters and correspondence relating to the Capuchin Publications Office. A manuscript annotation on the title page reads ‘Private Letters / Father Senan OFM Cap. / 11 March 1949’. Includes references to the Captain Robert Monteith fund and contemporary politics. Other letters refer to Fr. Senan’s ill-health (which required lengthy periods of hospitalization in 1949 and in 1953) and to the serious debts accumulated by the Publications Office. Includes Fr. Senan’s copy letters to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap., Joseph O’Connor (Seosamh Ó Conchubhair,), Fr. Eugene Carroll OFM Cap., Fr. Carmelo Durante of Sessano OFM Cap., Fr. Terence L. Connolly SJ, John J. O’Kelly (‘Sceilg’), Aodh de Blacam, Charles E. Kelly, Br. Colmcille Ó Conbhuidhe (Mellifont Abbey, Collon, County Louth), Seumas O’Brien (sculptor, dramatist, fabulist, 1880-1959), Fr. Christopher Crowley OFM Cap., Fr. Bosco Lennon OFM Cap., John Desmond Sheridan, Sir Charles Alexander Petrie, H. Martin Hamilton, Bishop John Dignan, Alan Macauley (Sierra Madre, California), Doran Hurley, Adolf Morath (photographer), Thomas Francis O’Sullivan, Fr. Conrad Simonsen Mackey OFM Cap. (Madrid, Spain), Sophie Raffalovich O'Brien, Séamus Campbell (James J. Campbell), Lennox Robinson, Fr. Thomas O’Donnell CM (Rector, All Hallows College, Dublin), Christopher T. Rooney, Frank E. Benner (Fruithill Park, Andersonstown, Belfast), Bishop William MacNeely, Fr. William Ferris (St. Michael’s Church, Ballylongford), Frank Gallagher (Glór Na Mara, Sutton, County Dublin), Ernest Newman, Michael Lennon (Healthfield Road, Terenure, Dublin), Aindrias Ó Muimhneacháin (Belmont Gardens, Donnybrook, Dublin), Bernard T. Hart (Brooklyn, New York), Monsignor Denis McDaid (Rector, Pontifical Irish College, Rome), Pádraig De Brún, Cadogan Travel Bureau (Sloane Street, London), John MacCourt (Manitoba, Canada), Chief Superintendent Harry O’Mara, Kevin Egan (The Holy Well, Cairns, County Sligo), John English & Co. (printers), Sister Augustine Murray (Convent of Mercy, Carlow), Leonard J. Schweitzer, Joseph Patrick Walshe (Irish Ambassador to the Holy See), John Alvin Feltis (1503 Lincoln Avenue, Toledo, Ohio), Monsignor Hugh Finnegan (Saint Joseph’s, Carrickmacross, County Monaghan), Robert Monteith, Michael A. Bowles, Fr. Matthew Hoehn OSB, Judge John J. Kelly (West Washington Street, Chicago), Dr. Colm A. McDonnell, Fr. Clement Neubauer OFM Cap. (Minister General of the Capuchin Franciscans), Eileen Crean, Frieda Le Pla, Michael Tierney (President, University College Dublin), Winefride Nolan, Fr. John Ryan SJ (35 Lower Lesson Street, Dublin), Fr. Patrick Gannon SJ (Miltown Park, Dublin), Lily McCormack, Tomás S. Cuffe, Philip F. Roden (11a Emory Street, Jersey City, United States), D.L. Kelleher, Archbishop John D’Alton, Archbishop Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap., Benedict Kiely, J.J. O’Connor (Manager, National Bank, 33 Arran Quay, Dublin), Peter F. Anson, Thomas MacGreevy, Joan Hammond (referring to her reception into the Catholic Church) and Fr. Dominic Meyer OFM Cap.

Includes: A long draft letter to Joseph O’Connor provides a description of Fr. Senan’s interview with Páraig ‘Paudeen’ Ó Caoimh, deputy military governor of Mountjoy prison in Dublin during the Civil War (1949); A letter to O’Connor affirms that Seán O’Casey ‘abominates everything a Catholic Irishman holds sacred’ (22 Nov. 1952); A letter to Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, refers to the crippling amount of debt accumulated by the Capuchin Publications Office over the past twenty-five years. Fr. Senan wrote ‘for a good few years the yearly income amounts to £22,000 but unfortunately the outgoings in any given year amount to £24,000 or so’. He also confirms that the profits from the ‘Angelic Shepherd’ publication has failed to clear the office’s debt and asks for a new letter of authorization for the bank. He asks for Fr. Colman’s forgiveness and refers to his hope that assistance from ‘two wealthy American friends’ will help clear the debt (22 Apr. 1953); A letter to Fr. Bosco Lennon OFM Cap. refers the death of Maud Gonne MacBride. Fr. Senan wrote ‘She was terrific character. God rest her. I used to love to get her to tell the story of how she went to Spain, was it in 1907, to assassinate King Edward VII’ (28 Apr. 1953).