Letter from Rev. Michael Curran, Pontifical Irish College Rome, to Terence MacSwiney, expressing his hope that ‘it may be possible for you to come to Rome for the celebration of the festivities connected with beatification of Oliver Plunkett’. Rev. Curran adds ‘We are fully aware of the extraordinary difficulties that must stand in the way of such a visit at such a time … In case you find yourself unable to come perhaps some other delegate might be sent from the Corporation of Cork’.
Typescript letter from Risteárd Ó Maolchatha (Richard Mulcahy), Chief of Staff of the IRA, to Terence MacSwiney, expressing his alarm on hearing that he ‘had been going about Cork during the day and even staying at home and elsewhere at night without any protection’. Mulcahy added ‘I want you to try and realise what a blow it would be to our prestige, if, after, what has happened in Cork, you should be attacked without having a scrap of protection … . A simple general instruction is being issued on this matter, but you must understand that your position is unique …’. Manuscript annotation on the reverse: ‘Toirdhealbhach Mac Suibhne’.
Letter from Seán Tomás Ó Ceallaigh (Sean T. O’Kelly) to Terence MacSwiney referring to the occasion of the beatification of Blessed Oliver Plunkett. A delegation consisting of Count O’Byrne, Professor Stockley and Art O’Brien went to Rome on behalf of the Dáil to represent the Government of the Republic at the beatification ceremonies. Sean T. O’Kelly and Mr. D. Hales, Consul in Italy, were also part of the delegation. In Irish
Letter from Sir Alfred Cope, Assistant Under Secretary for Ireland, Dublin Castle, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap., Church Street, confirming that Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. is still being detained at Wormwood Scrubs and that he will be moved to Parkhurst Prison in the coming days. Cope also refers to the conditions under which Fr. Dominic will be detained.
Letter from the deputy governor of Parkhurst Prison to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap., Church Street, re the condition of Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. He is in ‘his usual health. He is in hospital and receives any medical attention necessary’.
Letter from the Most Rev. Daniel Cohalan, Bishop of Cork, to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, referring to the withdrawal of Fr. Dominic’s faculties due to his inability to take the examination for renewal of faculties. Bishop Cohalan also refers to his unease on reading an announcement in the papers that Fr. Dominic is to be appointed honorary chaplain to a brigade of the IRA. The Bishop wrote: ‘Now I put it to you that a lay body has no authority to confer an ecclesiastical honour from a lay authority’. He later asks Fr. Edwin: ‘Are you not conceding to a military brigade what belongs essentially to the church?’ With a copy reply from Fr. Edwin claiming that he knew nothing of Fr. Dominic's appointment as chaplain to the IRA until his attention was drawn to a report in the Cork newspapers.
Letter from the Most Rev. Daniel Cohalan, Bishop of Cork, to Fr. Martin Hyland OFM Cap., Guardian, Rochestown Capuchin Friary, expressing his happiness that Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. is back in Cork again. He notes that he ‘has been a good while in prison [and] previous to that he was a war chaplain’, and requests that he prepare for examination for the renewal of faculties to preach and to hear confessions. The examination will be a written test on moral and dogmatic theology. With copy reply from Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, asserting that ‘owing to the degrading and cruel treatments he suffered for the past thirteen or fourteen months at the hands of the British’ it would be unwise to ask Fr. Dominic to prepare for the aforementioned examination.
Letter from the Most Rev. Peter Emmanuel Amigo, Bishop of Southwark, to Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap., expressing his delight on seeing him after all his recent suffering. He also grants him full diocesan faculties for his stay in the diocese.
Letter to Lena May Murphy, Cork, from Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. (23 Nov. 1918). It reads: ‘I must thank you very sincerely for your great kindness to my dead father in his last illness. All at home are never done telling everybody of you and your wonderful goodness’. This letter was sent by [Maire] Murphy, 35 Mercier Park, Curragh Road, Cork, to Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap. (13 Nov. 1991), explaining that Lena May Murphy was her late aunt. With a copy photograph of Lena May Murphy, and notes by Fr. Nessan re Lena May who worked as a nurse caring for elderly patients.
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).
