A clipping of an article reprinting a copy of Fr. Albert Bibby’s final letter to Éamon de Valera pledging his ‘unchanged and unchangeable, and uncompromising’ allegiance to the Republic and to you, its President’. He argues that ‘in the movement for the independence of Ireland I have always endeavoured to remember that I was a Capuchin Priest’. The volume also includes a covering letter from Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. to de Valera enclosing Bibby’ letter and referring to the latter’s ailing health. O’Connor concludes by stating that it is ‘better to die in agony than for freedom than live in luxurious freedom’. (Volume page 116).
A photographic print of Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. among a large crowed at a public event. No information in relation to either the date or the location of the event is given, but it was likely in Cork. The central figure addressing the crowd may be Tomás MacCurtain, Lord Mayor of Cork.
A photograph of Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. (right) and Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. (second from left) with two unidentified republicans in Freemasons’ Hall (or ‘Masonic Hall’) on Molesworth Street in Dublin. The two Capuchin friars visited the Hall following its seizure by anti-Treaty republicans in April 1922.
Memoriam card for Fr. Dominic O’Connor. The card notes his role as chaplain to the Lord Mayors of Cork, Tomás Mac Curtain, and Terence MacSwiney. It also states that he died ‘in exile for the Republic of Ireland at Bend, Oregon, USA, 17th October 1935’.
Draft recollections of deceased Irish Capuchin friars compiled by an unknown author (but certainly by another friar). The texts are titled ‘Some who have gone before’ and ‘Predecessors / A Capuchin Reverie’. The text includes personal recollections of: Fr. Leonard Brophy OFM Cap. (1869-1930) Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. (1877-1925) Fr. Matthew O’Connor OFM Cap. (d. 27 Apr. 1930) Br. Felix Harte OFM Cap. (d. 11 Jan. 1935) Fr. Fidelis Neary OFM Cap. (d. 22 June 1932) Fr. Sebastian O’Brien OFM Cap. (1867-1931) Fr. Paul Neary OFM Cap. (d. 20 June 1939) The text also refers to several friars who have been given pseudonyms such as ‘Philemon’, ‘Junius’, and ‘Marcion’. The text includes references to Fr. Albert’s role in the 1916 Rising and in the later revolutionary period. It reads: ‘He felt, as few did, the piercing griefs of the young widows of Easter Week. Often would he visit them of an evening. … He made friends with the wistful little son and daughter who were orphaned by the bullets that took [Thomas] MacDonagh’s life away, and who were made motherless by the cruel waves that closed over the drowning body of the patriot’s bride [Muriel MacDonagh drowned in the sea off Skerries, County Dublin, on 9 July 1917]. For them he had a special corner in his affections. All his heart went out to that wee pair, so tragic, so utterly lonely’. The file also includes an attached clipping referring to the re-interment of the bodies of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. and Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. in Rochestown Capuchin Cemetery on 14 June 1958
An image of Tomás MacCurtain (seated on the tractor) with a nationalist pipe and drum band at a demonstration of a Fordson tractor (manufactured locally by the American Ford Motor Company) in Cork in 1920. Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. is among the crowd at the event.
