Declaration of Lillie Agnes Connolly’s (wife of James Connolly) reception into the Catholic Church. It reads: ‘I Fr. Aloysius OSFC declare that … I have this fifteenth day of August 1916 received into the Catholic Church Mrs Lily Agnes Connolly observing the prescribed rites and ceremonies’. The document is signed by Lillie Agnes Connolly and witnessed by Fiona Connolly (1907-1976)
Letter from Lillie Connolly, 37 St Patrick’s Road, Drumcondra, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap., affirming that she has ‘started the Catholic Belief this morning taking it from the beginning’. She assures Fr. Aloysius that ‘I will study it right through’. Final page is endorsed (in a different hand) with a list of Catholic devotions.
Postcard to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap., Church Street, from ‘E. Ní F’ (Eibhlín Ní Fhoghludha) declaring that a ‘very small room for your friend’ is ready in August. The author also affirms that ‘we have had a very quiet time in Rinn but you know we are very much behind the times’. The photographic print of the postcard shows refurbishment work on Liberty Hall after its destruction in the 1916 Rising. The banner across the façade of the hall reads: ‘James Connolly murdered May 12th 1916’.
Authorisation from Colonel H.V. Cowan, Assistant Adjutant General, Headquarters, Irish Command, Parkgate, Dublin, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. The note reads: ‘The General Officer Commander in Chief directs that every facility be given to his Revered Father Aloysius OSFC to visit rebel prisoners at any of the places of detention or internment, to hear confessions and administer the rights of his Church, at all times’.
Copy note from Major W.S. Lennon, Commandant, Kilmainham Detention Barracks, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. The note reads: ‘The Prisoner H.T. Pearse [sic] desires to see you and you have permission to visit him. Failing you he would be glad to see any of the Capucines [sic]’.
The note reads: ‘Dear Mother, we had to surrender so we march to Phoneix [sic] Park, don’t forget to pray us’. A partially decipherable name and address is given on the reverse: ‘Matthew [ ], 12 Great Longford St, Dublin, off Aungier St.’ The item was found within an envelope annotated: ‘Farewell letter to His mother of a soldier of the I.R.A. who fought for Ireland in the Rising of Easter Week, 1916’.
Copy letter from Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. to the editor of the 'Irish Catholic' protesting against the ‘obvious and unkind suggestion’ made in relation to Thomas MacDonagh in a recent edition of the paper. Fr Aloysius declared: ‘I feel bound to emphatically assert that his preparation for his last moment manifested a depth of Catholic Faith and a tenderness of piety most edifying and impressive and that he received the rites of his Church with a devotion which not easily be forgotten by The Priest who assisted him’
Letter from Brian O’Higgins, Detention Barracks, Stafford, c/o Chief Postal Censor, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap., regarding the conditions of his detention. He writes: ‘We are all in good health and in the best of spirits; we are treated very kindly and have little to complain of. We have the Rosary in public – the whole lot of us together …’. He also asks Fr. Aloysius ‘to call at 117 Capel St. and see if Mrs Doyle and her children are being looked after? Her husband asked me to give this favour of you …’.
Letter from ‘Jimmy B’, prisoner no. “Q 161”, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. expressing his gratitude to Fr. Aloysius for his ‘two cards [and] also the Xmas card which were as rays of sunshine from Church St. to me in my exile’. He also adds ‘Eoin McNeill desired me to thank you for his Christmas message which he received alright and Gerard Crofts sends his best respects to you’.
