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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.

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).

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).

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.

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’.

Colour print showing Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC administering the pledge (probably at the Custom House, Dublin). The caption reads: ‘The Very Revd. Theobald Mathew / Administering the Temperance Pledge / I promise to abstain from all intoxicating drinks &c except used medicinally, and by order of a medical man, and to discountenance the cause and practice of intemperance / Prayer / May God bless you and enable you to keep your promise’. The frame backing has a printed flier from the ‘Association of Men of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus / Church of St. Kevin, Harrington Street, A.D. 1914’.

Father Mathew Temperance Medal
c.1840-1850
Diameter: 4.4 cm
Silver Medal
Physical description:
• Face (front): Fr. Mathew addresses the kneeling crowd. Outer rim inscription reads ‘May God bless you and grant you grace and strength to keep your promise.
Obverse: Outer edge inscription reads ‘Dedicated to the Very Rev. Theobald Mathew. Centre: ‘Whose / exertions / have laid the / foundation of his country’s happiness / and merited / the admiration / of mankind’.
A green and white ribbon in the form of a crucifix (with pin) is attached.

Total Abstinence Society Medal
c.1840-1850
Diameter: 4.4 cm
Silver Medal
Physical description:
• Face (front): Man and woman on pedestal on which two children are seated. The adults carry a shield surmounted by a cross, with an angel above. The upper part of the shield has a lamb bearing a banner. The man bears a banner with the words ‘sobriety’. The woman bears a banner with the words ‘Domestic Comfort’. Outer-edge inscription reads: ‘In hoc signo vinces’.
Obverse: Cruciform text of pledge. Outer edge inscription reads: ‘Total Abstinence Society, The Very Rev. T. Mathew, President’.
A green ribbon with pin is attached.

Total Abstinence Society Medal
1840
Diameter: 4.4 cm
Silver Medal in Glass
Physical description:
• Face (front): Man and woman on pedestal on which two children are seated. The adults carry a shield surmounted by a cross, with an angel above left of the cross. The upper part of the shield has a lamb bearing a banner. The man bears a banner with the words ‘sobriety’. The woman bears a banner with the words ‘Domestic Comfort’. Outer-edge inscription reads: ‘In hoc signo vinces’.
Obverse: Cruciform text of pledge encircled by title of society, president (Fr. Theobald Mathew), and the date of foundation (10 Apr. 1838).
A large green ribbon is attached with the following embroidered text ‘F ✙ M / 1840 / God Save Ireland’. The ribbon is partially torn. Very careful manual handling is required.

Medal of the Army Temperance Association, India
1862
Oval-shaped silver medal
4 cm x 3 cm
Physical Description:
• Medal of the Soldiers’ Total Abstinence Association in India. The inscription the face reads ‘Watch and be sober’. Inscription the obverse reads ‘The Association Medal for Fidelity India’.
Note: After 1902 the Victoria Memorial Medal was adopted and used by Indian Organisations of the Royal Army Temperance Association as a Two-Year Medal.

Temperance Medal Ribbon
1889
Physical Description:
• A green ribbon with silver crucifix attached bearing the inscription ‘Presented to the Very Rev. Fr. Columbus [Maher] OSFC / President / Feb. 1889’. The ribbon would have been originally attached to a temperance medal. Fr. Columbus Maher OSFC (1835-1894) was President of the Father Mathew Temperance Association attached to St. Mary of the Angels, Church Street, Dublin.

A decorative silver trowel commemorating the laying of the top-stone of the Father Mathew Statue on Sackville (O’Connell) Street, Dublin, on 13 Oct. 1890. The inscription on the trowel reads:
‘The Father Mathew Centenary / Presented to the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor of Dublin on the occasion of the laying of the top stone of the pedestal of statue to the Great Apostle of Temperance Rev. Theobald Mathew. Signed on behalf of the Committee / Charles A. Cameron FRCSI, Archibald J. Nicolls LLB, George Noble Plunkett, Henry Wigham. Hon. Secs., Central Committee, Mansion House, Dublin, 13th Oct. 1890’. The silver is hallmarked.

• Photographic print (on card) of a portrait of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC. The print is by William Lawrence, portrait painter and photographer, Dublin. 16.5 cm x 10.5 cm. 2 copies.
• Photographic print (on card) of the Father Mathew statue in the workshop of Mary Redmond (1863-1930) before its installation on Sackville (O’Connell) Street, Dublin, in 1893. 16.5 cm x 12 cm. (See image above).
• Copy engraving of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC. 25 cm x 17 cm. Printed.
• Photographic print of the plaque on Cove Street, Cork, commemorating Fr. Mathew’s residence in a house (No. 8) on that street. The plaque was erected by Cork Corporation in 1980. 15 cm x 10 cm. Colour print.
• Cutting of a cartoon titled ‘The cause of the high death-rate / The Working-man’s Sunday’ showing ‘as it was spent before the Sunday Closing Act’ and ‘as it is spent now in unwholesome quarters of the city – as the working-man must get his beer’. [c.1890]. 1 p.
• Photographic print of the Father Mathew statue on O’Connell Street, Dublin, in c.1955. Ink stamp on reverse reads ‘Irish Tourist Board Photo’. 25.5 cm x 17.8 cm.
• Copy print (on card) of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC. 25.5 cm x 20 cm.

A pledge medal of the Dublin Total Abstinence Association dating to 1840. 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 has a cruciform text of the pledge and reads: ‘I have voluntarily promised in the presence of the Revd. Dr. Spratt to abstain from all spiritous liquors and intoxicating drinks except used medicinally and then by order of a medical man and the discountenance of all the vices and practices of intemperance and also to attend to my religious duties’. The outer-rim inscription reads ‘The Dublin Total Abstinence Pledge The Very Revd. Dr. Spratt Patron 1840’. The maker of the medal was J. Taylor.