Telegram from Fr. Dominic O'Connor OFM Cap. to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. regarding the death of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. in St. Francis Hospital in Santa Barbara, California. The text reads 'Albert with martyrs of the Gael / peaceful happy death / Dominic'.
Recollections of visits made to Kevin Barry (executed 1 Nov. 1920); to ‘six young heroes hanged at Mountjoy Prison, March 14th 1921’; and to Thomas Traynor (executed 26 Apr. 1921). The recollections refer to visits made by unnamed religious sisters. The transcripts focus on the piety and courage shown by the condemned prisoners. It reads: ‘All the young men were teetotallers and some of them abstained from smoking. We noticed two empty porter bottles in the grate in Flood’s cell. When he saw me looking at them he said “you know our friends can bring us in now anything one asks for. The Black and Tan guards here are decent to us and we ordered in drink for them”’.
Postcard from Fr. Albert Biddy OFM Cap., Cork, to Fr. Alphonsus Carroll OFM Cap., Capuchin Friary, Walkin Street, Kilkenny, sending on his greetings and declaring that all his friends ‘down south are splendid’.
Photographic copy print of a letter from Erskine Childers, Beggars’ Bush Barracks, Dublin, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., declaring that he is ‘to die tomorrow at 7’. He states he will ‘die happy and undefeated and at peace with God and men’. Fr. Albert referred to this letter in his statement titled ‘The Case of Farther Albert, O.S.F.C.’, defending his actions and declaring his ‘absolute impartiality’ during the War of Independence and later at the outbreak of Civil War hostilities in Dublin in 1922 (CA IR-1-1-2-4-6).
This section includes letters to Capuchins referring to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., his ministry to prominent republicans, his exile in the United States, and his death. The section includes a copy of a letter written by Fr. Albert to Fr. Juan Antonio de San Juan en Persiceto OFM Cap., Minister General of the Capuchin Franciscans, enclosing a vigorous statement defending his conduct during the revolutionary period and, in particular, his ministering to imprisoned republicans (CA IR-1-1-2-4-6).
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.
Notes from Frank Cullen, prisoner no. 135, to his brother Tom and to his mother, mostly referring to prison conditions. He informs his brother that a photograph of ‘poor John J. Heuston which his sister Theresa sent me about a fortnight ago’ was confiscated. ‘I was told that the photograph was of one of the men executed in Dublin and they could not give it to me … you see we are not allowed to have the photograph of an Irishman in our cells who gave his life for his country’. He asks both his brother and mother to remember him to his various friends at home.
Note from C. Burgess [Cathal Brugha], Dublin Castle Hospital, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., Franciscan Capuchin Church, Church St. It reads: ‘I should be obliged if you dropped in here any time tomorrow or Friday to hear my confession. As there has been a new regulation made here with regard to the admission of the clergy it might be as well if you brought this card with you’. During the Rising Brugha was severely wounded by a hand grenade, as well as by multiple gunshot wounds, and was initially not considered likely to survive. He recovered over the next year, but was left with a permanent limp.