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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).

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 Constance Markievicz, Holloway Jail, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., Church St., Dublin, referring to her conditions of imprisonment and conveying her good wishes to Fr. Albert, Fr. Augustine Hayden OFM Cap., and Sister Brigid. She declares that ‘when we free our country I shall start a movement for the reformation of jails and jailors! I am proud of being selected as a candidate. I wonder whether I should have a better chance of election in or out of jail?’ With 2 covers.

Copy letter from Roger Casement, Pentonville Prison, to his chaplain, Fr. E.F. Murnane, regarding the progress of his appeal against the indictment of high treason. With a letter (2 Aug. 1916) from E.F. Murnane, The Presbytery, Dockhead, [Bermondsey, London, S.E.], in the same hand, to George Gavan Duffy regarding Casement’s last hours. Includes a copy extract from a letter from the Prison Chaplain giving a brief account of Casement’s piety before his execution. The file also includes an original letter from Roger Casement, Wellington Club, Grosvenor Place, S.W., to Francis H. Cowper (16 Dec. 1903) declaring that all is well him ‘but fearful Congo row is brewing and I shall be the storm centre I fear’. He adds 'Give the brindled John my love and a kiss on his black nose. I wish I were in Lisbon now …’. The ‘brindled John’ was presumably a domestic cat or dog owned by Cowper; brindled referring to a specific type of patchy colouring most commonly associated with the patterned fur of cats. It is unknown how this letter was acquired by the Capuchin friars but it is likely that it was given to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. for safekeeping by an nationalist acquaintance.