Showing 39 results

Card signed by ‘Constance de Markievicz, I.R.A.’ and Kathleen Clarke. Dated at Holloway Jail, Dec. 1918’. With cover opened by the censor.

Invitation card to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. for a reception for released prisoners of war organised by the Irish National Aid and Volunteers’ Dependents Fund at the Mansion House, Dublin.

Letter from Áine b. Ė. Ceannt, [wife of Ėamonn Ceannt], 44 Oakley Rd., Ranelagh, noting that ‘it is terrible to find that the rebels at Church St. are not only self-willed but so mightily independent’. She compliments Father Albert for saying the mass in Irish: ‘I felt how pleased poor Eamonn would be’. She gives news of the ailing condition of Muriel MacDonough’s ‘poor soon [who] has to go to a nursing home and lie on his back for months’. She also refers to the North Roscommon by-election and a well-received letter from Fr. Augustine Hayden which was printed in the Roscommon Herald

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 Br. Colmcille Cregan OFM Cap. to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. referring to Fr. Albert Bibby's worsening condition in Santa Barbara Hospital. He writes that Father Albert ‘has no desire to die, as he had [a] big wish to do something for Saint Agnes [Mission Santa Inés], but God has ordained otherwise. Anyway, he set the Mission going and had got many interested in the restoration work’. He also refers to Fr. Dominic O'Connor's presence which has delighted Albert and that the latter expresses no bitterness towards his brethren at home. He also affirms that it is Bibby's wish to be buried in Ireland and to make representations to the Provincial Minister and the relevant authorities in Ireland to ensure that this happens.

Letter from James Long, Secretary, Cork Harbour Commissioners, to Fr. Martin Hyland OFM Cap., Guardian, Capuchin Friary, Rochestown, conveying the condolences of the commissioners on the death of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., 'a distinguished Churchman and Irishman'. Copies of the letter were sent to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. and Fr. Pius Duggan OFM Cap.

Letter from D. O’Callaghan, prisoner no. q 128, Lewes Prison, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., concerning his conditions of imprisonment. He also expresses his joy on hearing that the ‘Gaelic League is doing splendidly and was never stronger’. He later claims that ‘my people are immigrated all over the world not through any fault of their own and not necessary for me to tell you the cause’. He has yet to receive a letter mailed to him from his brother in America.

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.

A letter from Dorothy Godfrey (1893-1975) to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. on her anger on hearing of the death of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. She writes ‘I want to tell you and your good friends, that Fr. Albert did die broken-hearted over the treatment he received from F. P[eter Bowe] and the two who went over to England to have his faculties taken from him. What he suffered for God and Ireland he did not mind, but to think of his own in religion doing such mean things almost broke his heart'.

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’.