Letter from Patrick Holohan, ‘Number: 975, hut 2, Irish Prisoner … Frongoch, North Wales’ to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., Church Street, Dublin, referring to the provision of religious services and giving news of conditions and prisoners at the camp. Holohan adds ‘I was glad to hear that you were with Heuston when he died as I was very fond of him. It is delightful to see all our leaders being converted to the Catholic faith’. With cover which has been opened by the censor.
Letter from Patrick J. MacNally, Commandant, Collins’ Barracks, Cork, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. enclosing a typescript copy of his unfinished account of the Easter Week Rising. Comdt. MacNally also encloses a rough sketch of the Church Street area upon which he asks Fr. Aloysius to ‘mark roughly the positions of any barricades you saw … [and] houses that were occupied’. He also attaches ‘a sketch of the Bride Street area … to enable you to fix the corner where you stood at the surrender of Eamonn Ceannt’.
Letter from Rev. Michael Curran, Pontifical Irish College Rome, to Terence MacSwiney, expressing his hope that ‘it may be possible for you to come to Rome for the celebration of the festivities connected with beatification of Oliver Plunkett’. Rev. Curran adds ‘We are fully aware of the extraordinary difficulties that must stand in the way of such a visit at such a time … In case you find yourself unable to come perhaps some other delegate might be sent from the Corporation of Cork’.
Letter from Rev. P.J. O’Rourke, Heppner, Oregon, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. enclosing a duplicate copy draft for £65 12s 6d. Fr. O’Rourke added ‘Knowing dear Father you can apply it to the best advantage. The donors wished it to be given principally to the survivors of those who fell during Easter Week’. With cover which has been opened by the censor. With an acknowledgment letter from F.X. Coghlan, Irish National Aid and Volunteer Dependents’ Fund, 10 Exchequer St., Dublin. Includes receipt to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. for the sum £65 12 6d received from the aforementioned parishioners of Heppner, Oregon.
Typescript letter from Risteárd Ó Maolchatha (Richard Mulcahy), Chief of Staff of the IRA, to Terence MacSwiney, expressing his alarm on hearing that he ‘had been going about Cork during the day and even staying at home and elsewhere at night without any protection’. Mulcahy added ‘I want you to try and realise what a blow it would be to our prestige, if, after, what has happened in Cork, you should be attacked without having a scrap of protection … . A simple general instruction is being issued on this matter, but you must understand that your position is unique …’. Manuscript annotation on the reverse: ‘Toirdhealbhach Mac Suibhne’.
Letter from Richard Smyth, 924 Summit Avenue, New York City, to Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, regarding a proposal for the reparation of the bodies of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. and Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap., the latter from a ‘non-Catholic cemetery in Oregon, USA’. He affirms that ‘it was impossible to make any move before this time, as one or more of the political parties in Ireland would use the occasion to forward their own political interests’.
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 Robert Monteith, Detroit, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., expressing his pleasure that Fr. Albert will be visiting him in Detroit. Monteith adds ‘The news coming across is surely heartening. I feel it in my bones that we are on the eve of great things and that our fond hopes will be realised’. He also expresses his wish that Fr. Albert addresses ‘our people’ in the city.
Letter from Seán T. O’Kelly, Reading Internment Camp, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap., conveying his thanks to Fr. Aloysius, Fr. Augustine and Fr. Albert ‘during “the week” itself and afterwards during those anxious and trying days of our imprisonment in Richmond [barracks]’. Refers to the conditions of other republican prisoners elsewhere: ‘… I only wish the boys in Frongoch were with us. It must be awful for them living under such conditions this harsh weather. The men in Dartmoor, Portland, etc. will I presume be much better off now that they are to be removed to Lewes where it is said too they are to be permitted to associate and to be given facilities for reading and writing’. Some reference is also made to the expulsion of republicans from Dublin Corporation and to the release of Brian na Banba (Brian O’Higgins).
Letter from Seán Tomás Ó Ceallaigh (Sean T. O’Kelly) to Terence MacSwiney referring to the occasion of the beatification of Blessed Oliver Plunkett. A delegation consisting of Count O’Byrne, Professor Stockley and Art O’Brien went to Rome on behalf of the Dáil to represent the Government of the Republic at the beatification ceremonies. Sean T. O’Kelly and Mr. D. Hales, Consul in Italy, were also part of the delegation. In Irish
