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Letter to Tim Healy from various republican internees asking him intercede in a dispute with prison authorities. The manuscript provides background to the dispute. The letter is in two distinctive hands and is (copy) signed by ‘Michael Staines, Head Leader; James Murphy, leader, no. 1 room; Edward A. Morkan, leader, no. 2 room; R.J. Mulcahy, leader, no. 3 room; Thomas D. Sinnott, Leader no. 4 Room’. The letter reads:
‘Recently the military authorities in charge of the Camp here have adopted such an attitude of consistently vindictive injustice towards us that we are reluctantly compelled to believe that there must be some ulterior motive behind it. … We can do very little to help ourselves, cut off as we are from all the world, and strictly prohibited – officially – from sending out a single complaint’.
In September 1917 Healy acted as counsel for the family of the dead Sinn Féin hunger striker Thomas Ashe. He was one of the few King’s Counsel to provide legal services to members of Sinn Féin in various legal proceedings in both Ireland and England after the 1916 Rising. This included acting for those illegally interned in 1916 in Frongoch in North Wales.

Letter from D. O’Callaghan, prisoner no. q 128, Lewes Prison, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., offering his thanks to all the ‘patriotic priests who offered up the Masses for the souls of our dear brothers, comrades and relatives …’. He assures that Fr. Albert that ‘all the men you mentioned De Velera [sic], J and G. Plunkett, J.J. Walsh, Desmond Fitzgerald and O’Hanrahan asked me to than you on their behalf, for kindly visiting their people … E. Duggan and P. Beasley were glad to hear from you’. O’Callaghan declares that he does not see much hope of any conciliation as ‘there has been so much blood and frightful suffering for the past seven hundred years, and foreign law is as hateful today as it was in the beginning’. He also gives news of the Jimmy Brennan and the ‘Church St. Boys’. The letter is written on an official form with regulations governing prisoner regulations printed on first page.

Letter from Austin Stack, prisoner no. 148, Manchester Prison, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., thanking the ‘friars of Church St.’ for the interest they have shown in their incarcerated ‘fellow countrymen and women’. Reference is also made to their prison conditions and to prisoner Fionán Lynch. With cover. The letter reads:
‘Your letter (which was written on the day following our removal from Belfast) was sent on after me to this place and I received it on the 3rd. I should not have got it at all in Belfast the way things were there.
Of course we deem it good of you to think of us in this way but this is only what I should expect of you and the other Friars of Church Street and I hope that we may prove worthy of the interest in us shown by our fellow countrymen and women.
There are ten of us here (including Fionán Lynch whom you know). We are devitalised of course after fourteen weeks solitary confinement in Belfast, but otherwise we are fairly well. A month hence I expect to be fit again with God’s help.
Our good Capuchin fathers will ever be kindly remembered by the Irish prisoners and their friends, God bless you … Aibhistín de Staic’.

Letter from Robert Barton, Mountjoy Gaol, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., stating that ‘prison life is no affliction to me. I much prefer the rest, seclusion and study of a cell to discoursing in public platforms’. He also discusses his reading of economic literature and affirms that he is learning Irish.

Letter from Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap., referring to his arrival in Pennsylvania. He states that he ‘is trying to settle down – but my heart is ever pining to be back. However I’ll stick it until the decree of banishment is revoked. Those who sent me out here gave me the heaviest blow it was possible to give me’. He expresses his joy on hearing of the release of De Valera and Austin Stack. He also refers to Éamon de Valera’s address and concludes that he is a great man. He affirms ‘I never before thought so much of Dev as I do now’. He also refers to his hope that he will meet with Captain Robert Monteith in Detroit.

Letter from Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap., suggesting that a person of the calibre of Seán French (1889-1937) should be in America as he would ‘heal the wounds and bitterness caused by divisions of the past few years’. Bibby also refers to his ill-health and remarks that he dreaded the idea of 'being buried with the Penn[sylvania] Dutch over 3,000 miles from dear old Ireland '. He also makes some caustic remarks in relation to Fr. Peter Bowe, the Irish Capuchin Provincial Minister, who is on a visitation to the the Western United States mission. He suggests that the Provincial is 'in no hurry – making most of every hour and every place – he has made his journey one joy ride, all the way and all the time. Everywhere you hear he is out for a good time. What an ideal!'.

Letter from Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap., referring to his poor health and his imminent departure for Santa Inés, ‘one of the old Franciscan missions in Los Angeles – somewhere about 40 miles from Santa Barbara'. Bibby adds 'The Bishop, Dr. [John Joseph] Cantwell, is giving it to our people, and I’m to run it …’. He also refers to prominent members of the Irish American community and to his meeting with Seán T. O’Kelly, Sinn Féin envoy to the United States. Bibby writes ‘He [O'Kelly] has a tough job before him, as hard as ever a man faced. Even had our people played the game – it would be difficult owing to [the] sinister influence of [Daniel Florence] Cohalan and [John] Devoy’.

Letter from Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. to [Fr. Augustine Hayden OFM Cap.] referring to the poor state of the Santa Inés mission. He also expresses his satisfaction on hearing of news in Ireland. He writes ‘I get the "Irish World" and occasionally "Sinn Féin" and so I am kept in touch with Irish affairs – Frank Gallagher’s Prison Daily and other articles I devour even though they pierce my very soul and make me sob like a child’. Bibby asserts that he has said mass for Erskine Childers on his anniversary and will do ‘tomorrow for Rory, Liam, Dick & Joe’. He adds ‘I can never forget what was said, what certain Friars said when my dearest friend Erskine and Rory etc. were slain, oh how their bitter words tore my very soul asunder’.

Letter from Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., St. Francis Hospital, Santa Barbara, California, to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. referring to his declining health. He writes 'Tis a desperate fight I'm making for life. ... I was more a corpse than alive when brought in here [hospital]. I have anaemia & ulceration of stomach. Though [the] former more serious, the latter would almost kills a bull'. Bibby adds 'When I think of Fr. Peter and his 4 Def[initors] I find it hard not to be bitter, but I try as best to have patience and offer up this suffering in expatiation of my sins’. He also refers to on-going work at the mission in Santa Inés.

An obedience from Fr. Peter Bowe OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. requiring him to leave the Church Street Friary in Dublin and to take up residence in the Capuchin Friary in Rochestown in County Cork.