Letters from Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. to Fr. Paul Neary OFM Cap. reporting on his research on the early Irish Capuchins in continental archives including repositories in Troyes and Charleville, ‘home of the Irish Friars of former days’. Fr. Dominic affirms that ‘further communications would be safer if addressed to c/o Mr. Seán T. O Ceallaigh, Grand Hotel, Place de l’Opera, Paris’ (3 Dec. 1919).
Letters from Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. to May Barrett, Watercourse Road, Cork, referring to the execution of Captain Pat Moran in Mountjoy Jail (died 14 Mar. 1921). Fr. Dominic wrote ‘What a lot of my friends have gone down since I was last in Cork or indeed in Ireland’. He expresses the hope that ‘they’d make Irish compulsory for the Dáil as it would put an end to some of the … long winded speeches’. With a newspaper clipping of a poem titled ‘Subvenite’ by Father Dominic, Parkhurst Convict Prison, ‘written in Prison on hearing of the execution of Captain Patrick Moran and Volunteer Thomas Whelan, both of whom were fellow-prisoners with him in Kilmainham’. (16 Mar. 1921). In Irish and English.
Letters from J.H MacDonnell, solicitor, 3-7 Southampton Street, Strand, London, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap., Church Street, Dublin, referring to his hopes for a settlement in relation to the release of Fr. Dominic O'Connor OFM Cap. He writes: ‘I think the Prisoners will be released during the negotiations. I know Bob Barton is very keen on the matter and as I am personally known to all of the delegates who are coming over, I shall press them to push this matter forward’. He also refers to improving conditions of Fr. Dominic’s confinement.
Letters from Kathleen Clarke (wife of Tom Clarke), 15 Barrington Street, Limerick, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., mostly concerning family news. She also wrote: ‘Limerick does not agree with me. I am tired all the time here. I have an unsettled feel here too … . I find it hard to realise that my home and everything is gone, the only thing left is hope, and if our hopes for Ireland’s future are fulfilled the sacrifices will have been worth the making’. She also refers to Ernest Blythe: ‘We had hoped for better for him. I suppose he is left Arbour Hill by this and there would be no use in writing to him
Letters from Nannie O’ Rahilly (wife of ‘The O’Rahilly’), to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., expressing her regret that a mass in honour of the rebels of 1916 could not be held in Church St. Friary ‘as you did so much for the men who died’. Later she added ‘Thank God we had the Mass at Mt. Argus, it was most touching and edifying and as you say the spirit was splendid, without any outward demonstration. So the priests who refused us might easily have had more courage’.
Letters from Sinéad de Valera to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., asking for a ‘national novena to the Sacred Heart’. She declares that she has ‘had a letter from Dev this morning. They have had no Sunday mass since they left Ireland. He served Mass on Corpus Christi but that was the only day they had Mass’. She relays De Valera’ request that luxury items such as sweets should not be sent to republican prisoners and suggests that ‘some little committee could be formed to collect the money which would otherwise be expended on postage …’. She adds ‘Please don’t let Eamonn’s name be associated with it as I know he would not like his remark about the luxuries to go around. He has a dislike to being considered a vaitin and his remark might be misunderstood’. In the letter of 24 May 1918 she refers to her anxiety over ‘the midnight raid and Saturday’s paper’. She added: ‘Dev is in Gloucester prison. I had a message from the Governor saying to send on some clothes’.
Letters from William Partridge to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. giving an outline of his career mostly in the labour and union movement under James Larkin. Partridge was among those rebels who surrendered at St Stephen’s Green in 1916. He was subsequently sentenced to ten years’ penal servitude and sent to Dartmoor and afterwards to Lewes Prison. He was released due to ill-health and returned to Ballaghadreen in County Mayo, but died on 26 July 1917. He refers to his physical condition in some of the correspondence. He writes ‘Please excuse scribbling as my sight got bad in prison and I have not yet got glasses’. With his memorial card and a newspaper cutting of his obituary notice. The file also includes a letter (probably from his brother, Felix Partridge) referring to his last days and thanking Fr. Albert for his words of sympathy.
Letters from R.G. Browne, Town Clerk, Urban District Council, Westport, and John Maher, Town Clerk, Cashel Urban District Council, offering their sympathies to the Capuchin Order on the death of Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. The resolution from Cashel Urban District Council reads: ‘During the martyr struggle of Terence MacSwiney (Lord Mayor of Cork) in Brixton Prison, the late Father Dominic by his attention and fidelity to the noble sufferer and the cause for which he suffers, he has left to Ireland a name that links him with the bravest and most heroic we boast of’.
'The Liberator' was a weekly newspaper published by Bernard Doyle from offices in Parliament Street, Dublin. The paper espoused opposition to Jim Larkin, the trade union leader during the Dublin Lockout. Each edition featured elaborate and caustic cartoons and editorials invariably attacking Larkin. The file contains a complete bound run of this short-lived journal: 23 Aug. 1913 (Vol. 1. Nos. 1-14). The file also contains 'The Irish Trade Unionist and Labour Year Book, 1913'. Edited by Bernard Doyle, 48 pp.
List of demands made by Thomas MacDonagh whilst jailed in Richmond Barracks. The list reads:
Visits to prisoners
Treatment of officers
Dependents and relations
Blankets
Books
The wearing [of] red cross badge who were not combatants
Washing arrangements Faint signature of ‘Thomas Mac Donough, Jacobs Factory’ is visible in centre of page. Addition in different hand at bottom of page reads: ‘No 7 will be allowed. Other complaints cannot be dealt with here. Louis [Ramsey?], 1/C. Richmond B[arrac]ks, 1/5/16’.
