Showing 25 results

Publisher: Dublin: P. Wogan
Edition/Format: Third Edition
Language: English
Front cover has gilt engraving ‘Very Rev. T. Mathew’; The title page has a manuscript depiction of the Mathew family coat-of-arms with the initialed monogram of ‘TM’.

Letters to Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. from grand-nephews of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC. The file includes letters from Fr. David Mathew, Theobald Mathew KC, and Fr. Gervase Mathew OP. The letters refer to the genealogy and family history of Fr. Theobald, to temperance souvenirs and mementos of his held in Holy Trinity Church, Cork, to draft letters composed by Fr. Theobald, to a portrait photograph of Fr. Theobald taken in c.1850, and invitations to various Father Mathew Centenary celebrations in Dublin. A letter of David Mathew (22 Jan. 1929) refers to the donation of Fr. Theobald’s chalice, paten and cruets to Holy Trinity Church. They were donated by Theobald Mathew Esq., KC, Recorder of Margate. In another letter (24 Feb. 1929), Fr. Stanislaus wrote ‘We have no letters written by any relative of Father Mathew to him or about him. We have in our Archives five letters written by him to members of the Order; nine that he wrote to his brother Charles, and his will of Nov. 21, 1849. We have several letters besides signed “Theobald Mathew”, but they were written by his secretary in his name, and are not in his handwriting’. A letter from Theobald Mathew refers to vestments belonging to the Apostle of Temperance in his possession (5 July 1936). The file also includes newspaper cuttings with a photographic print of the aforementioned chalice and paten belonging to Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC which were donated to Holy Trinity Church. 'Cork Examiner', 16 Oct. 1928; 'The Father Mathew Record', Dec. 1928.

Minute book of the Father Mathew Centenary Committee which had the responsibility for financing and erecting the statue of the Apostle of Temperance on Sackville (later O’Connell Street), Dublin. The Centenary Committee was made up of Catholics, Anglicans and other Protestant denominations and notably received the support of the Most Rev. William Plunket, Baron Plunket, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin: ‘Most thoroughly do I sympathize in any movement for honouring the memory of one to whom the cause of temperance in this land is so largely indebted’. (10 Oct. 1889).
Prominent public (non-clerical) figures in the committee included:
George Noble Plunkett (1851-1948) an Irish nationalist and father of Joseph Plunkett, one of the executed leaders of the 1916 Rising.
John Redmond MP (1856-1918), an Irish home rule nationalist, later leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
Michael Davitt (1846-1906), a nationalist and agrarian campaigner.
Thomas Sexton MP (1848-1932), Lord Mayor of Dublin.
William Martin Murphy MP (1844-1919), a businessman and politician.
Timothy Charles Harrington MP (1851-1910), a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
The minute book reveals that from the outset committee members were in support of resolutions which would place the statue in a prominent public place in the city. For instance, Thomas Connolly suggested that a ‘statue should be erected similar to the O’Connell [monument], and that it should be placed at the other end of O’Connell Street so that people might be reminded by the two monuments of the two great men who were in a sense the complement of one another …’. (Oct. 1889).
• This intent was formalised in a resolution forwarded by the Committee to Dublin Corporation on 1 May 1890 ‘requesting them to grant a site in Upper O’Connell Street, Dublin, for the erection of the Memorial Statue to Father Theobald Mathew’. (1 May 1889).
• The aim of the Centenary Committee was from the beginning to site the statue in the most prominent space available in the city linking the historically concurrent campaigns undertaken by Fr. Mathew (temperance) and O’Connell (emancipation and repeal). It should also be noted that the Corporation was unanimous in granting the O’Connell Street site. (15 May 1890).
• An application was made to the boundary surveyor to obtain ‘the consent of the Corporation for a 16 feet square space on the site known as the “Retreat” in Upper O’Connell Street which has been already allotted to the Committee for the erection of the Father Mathew Centenary Memorial’. (5 June 1890).
The siting of an Fr. Mathew Statue on the main thoroughfare (St. Patrick’s Street) running through Cork city in 1864 influenced the Dublin Committee: Henry Brown reminded the Committee that the ‘citizens of Cork had already placed Father Mathew’s Statue in their city, where he remembered standing on the platform in Patrick’s Street, while the Mayor of Cork, John Francis Maguire MP was unveiling Foley’s exquisite statue’. (Oct. 1889). By October 1892 a total of £1,114 5s 3d had been collected by the Centenary Committee (13 Oct. 1892). The minute book includes subscription lists, accounts and pasted-in newspaper clippings re meetings of the committee and its efforts to raise funds for the memorial. Funding was sourced from various local temperance societies (both Protestant and Catholic), workingmen’s clubs, national schools and colleges, and public and professional bodies (corporations and the police force). Donations were received from across Ireland and from Irish emigrant communities in America, Canada, Australia and elsewhere.
The resolutions adopted at the official unveiling of the statue on 8 February 1893 reflected the widespread appeal of the Fr. Mathew commemoration and the ‘placing of a statue among the public monuments of the metropolis’:
• ‘That as the Rev. Theobald Mathew loved his countrymen of all creeds and laboured zealously for their moral improvement and temporal prosperity, this great meeting rejoices that this public monument to his memory has been erected to remind our people of what he accomplished in the cause of total abstinence’.
• ‘That the Centenary Statue of the Rev. Theobald Mathew having been erected by subscriptions from men of all parties, and regardless of religious distinctions, it is appropriate that it be now unveiled by the Right Hon. James Shanks as Lord Mayor of the City of Dublin’. (2 Feb. 1893).
Reference is also made in the Centenary Committee minute book to the very novel nature of the award of the commission to a female sculptor. Count Plunkett, a leading member of the Committee, referred to ‘the merit which characterizes the design of Miss Redmond, a young artist who had made her mark, not only in this country but on the continent, in spite of her youth’. (1 May 1890).

Newspaper cuttings compiled by Fr. Paul Neary OFM Cap. (d. 20 June 1939) relating to the life and temperance campaign of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC. The majority of the cuttings and publications are from 1890 and relate to the commemorations of the centenary of the birth of Fr. Mathew. An alphabetical index to the newspaper clippings is extant at the front of the volume. The volume includes cuttings from the 'Belfast Morning News', 'Catholic Times', 'Daily Graphic', 'Evening Telegraph', 'Cork Examiner', 'Freeman’s Journal', 'Northern Whig' (Belfast), 'Temperance Record' (London), 'Weekly Herald', and 'Women’s Penny Papers'. The volume also includes illustrations of Father Mathew Memorial Hall, Church Street, Dublin, temperance demonstrations in Cork and Dublin, notable events and places associated with the life and work of Fr. Mathew, and the Father Mathew statue on Sackville Street, Dublin. Printed matter inserted in the volume includes flyers for the Grand National Celebration in honour of Father Mathew held in Cork, 8-10 Oct. 1890 (p. 101), the Rule book of the female branch of the Father Mathew Sacred Thirst Sodality (p. 149), and pastoral letters published by various Irish bishops marking the Father Mathew centenary (pp 163-70).

Publisher: Dublin: C.M. Warren, 21 Upper Ormond Quay
Language: English
Full title: 'Rule book of the Father Mathew OSFC Sacred Thirst / The Father Mathew Memorial Hall, Dublin / Branch of St. Patrick’s League of the Cross / attached to the Church of Our Lady of Angels, Church Street, Dublin'. The front cover has an ink drawing of the Hall fronting onto Church Street.

• Flier for the Dublin Total Abstinence Society advertising its work and various events. It reads ‘The Dublin Total Abstinence Society was the oldest Society in the City, and the late James Haughton Esq., was the President. … It is a pleasing fact, and worthy of record, that still the friendship exists between the Haughton family and the Society; and the donation of £150, which the Society has received from the four legatees of the late Miss Lizzie Haughton, proves the interest the family still take in the principles which their father advocated for many years in the city’. Reference is made to the three ‘coffee palaces’ and to two large temperance halls (one in Dublin and one in Kingstown). The flier dates to 1885. The reverse of the flier reprints a ‘Great Temperance Procession Poster’ of March 1841. Printed. 2 pp.
• Notebook containing newspaper clippings relating to the League of the Sacred Thirst attached to St. Mary of the Angels, Church Street, Dublin’. An annotation on the first page reads ‘I began this League of the “Sacred Thirst” in June [1880] in our Church of the Lady of the Angels, Church Street, the men meet on Mondays and the women on Wednesday evenings. Fr. Albert Mitchell OSFC’. The clippings date from 10 Sept. 1880 to 23 Sept. 1881 and report meetings of this Temperance Sodality in Church Street and in the temperance hall on Halston Street. Some annotations and comments by Fr. Mitchell are added to the notebook. Clippings, 20 pp.
• Clipping referring to an endowment of $25,000 from the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America for the establishment of the ‘Father Mathew Chair of Psychology’ at the Catholic University of America, Washington. [c.1930]. Clipping, 2 pp.
• Copy flier for The Father Mathew Hall, Church Street, Dublin, which ‘aims at promoting sobriety and providing instruction and healthful amusement for boys and men’. c.1935. Printed, 1 p.

Two metal dies used to strike Total Abstinence Pledge medals. The dies are large metallic pieces that were used to medal a coin, one per each side. The dies have an inverse version of the image to be struck on the medal. One side shows a profile-view of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC. The obverse has the cruciform text of pledge. The maker’s stamp on the dies reads ‘G. Cook, 21 Regent Row, Birmingham’.

A collection of Total Abstinence Society medals collected by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. and other Capuchin friars.
• Silver medal of the Metropolitan Total Abstinence Society. The front (face) shows St. Michael with the winds and the inscription ‘Who is like God’. The obverse: Cruciform text of pledge. The outer-rim inscription reads ‘The Metropolitan Total Abstinence Society The Rev. A. O’Connell President. Inner rim reads ’26 Nov. 1839’.
• Pewter medal of the Total Abstinence Society. Fr. Angelus notes that the medal is extremely worn and defaced.
• Silver medal of the Total Abstinence Society of Ireland. Fr. Angelus notes that the maker was Woodhouse of Dublin.
• Silver medal of the Total Abstinence Society of Ireland. Fr. Angelus notes that the maker was Jones of Dublin. A green ribbon is attached to the medal. An annotation on the covering envelope reads ‘Presented to Fr. Angelus by Miss Tobin, 13 Killarney Street, Dublin’.
• Pewter medal of the Cork Total Abstinence Society. An annotation on the covering envelope reads ‘Presented to Fr. Angelus by Mr. Cosgrave’. The medal is very worn and defaced.
• Pewter medal of St. Mary’s Temperance Society, Kilkenny. The medal is very worn and defaced. For more information on St. Mary’s Temperance Society see the 'Journal of the American Temperance Union', Vols. 1-4 (1837) at p. 190. It is noted that St. Mary’s Temperance Society has 1,300 members with 100 to 200 members meeting on the evening of the Sabbath under the spiritual direction of the Rev. J. P. O’Reilly. The medal was probably made by Isaac Parkes (b.c.1791-1870). See: http://www.libraryireland.com/irishartists/isaac-parkes.php
• Pewter medal of the Cork Total Abstinence Society. A note attached to the medal reads ‘Lent by M.A. Rogan, 55 St. Patrick’s Road, Drumcondra’. The medal is very worn and defaced.
• Silver temperance medal. A note in the covering envelope reads ‘Presented by Mr. W. O’Herlihy, 61 Gurranabraher Avenue, Cork, apparently inherited from his grandfather, a married daughter gave it to me. Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap., 13 April 1982’. The medal is very worn and defaced.

A collection of Total Abstinence Society medals collected by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. and other Capuchin friars. Most of the medals were sent to Fr. Angelus who duly recorded their provenance and source. The collection includes:
• Silver medal ‘presented to Fr. Angelus by Miss Gibson, Ballyglass, County Mayo. It belonged to her grandfather, who had taken the pledge from Fr. Mathew. He was a convert, but she is of the opinion he had taken the Pledge whilst he was a Protestant’.
• Silver cross of the Youghal Roman Catholic Total Abstinence Society founded by the Rev. John Foley on 1 May 1839. The obverse has the text of the pledge with the Latin phrase ‘In hoc signo vinces’. Two examples of the cross are extant. Fr. Angelus notes that one of the crosses was donated by Miss Gibson of County Mayo.
• Silver medal of the Total Abstinence Society of the Sacred Thirst. The medal has a red ribbon and pin attachment. With annotated envelope by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap.
• Silver medal of the Total Abstinence Society of Ireland. The medal is engraved on the rim ‘Presented to L.S. Gore Jones by The Rev. T. Mathew’. The medal was given to Fr. Angelus by Rev. Laurence Kelly CC, St. Michan’s Church, North Anne Street, Dublin.
• Pewter medal of the Dublin Total Abstinence League founded in 1872. The inscription on the obverse reads ‘For / Glory to God / for example to man / safety / I promise with the Divine / Assistance to abstain / from all intoxicating / drinks and to / discountenance / the / liquor traffic’. The front has a side-profile view of Fr. Mathew. Fr. Angelus notes that the maker was Woodhouse, Dublin.
• Pewter medal of the Total Abstinence Pledge. The front (face) shows the Good Shepherd. The outer-rim inscription reads ‘I have found the sheep that was lost Luke Chap. 15 v. 6’. The obverse: Cruciform text of pledge. The outer-rim inscription reads ‘The Dublin Total Abstinence Pledge The Very Revd. Dr. Spratt Patron 1840’. Fr. Angelus notes that the maker was J. Taylor.

An original total abstinence pledge card of [Con] Boyle dated 23 May 1841. The certificate is signed by Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC.