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Annual reports and statements of accounts of Father Mathew Hall, Church Street. The booklets provide reports on annual general meetings, activities, speeches and events held in the Hall and provide annual accounts of receipts and expenditure. The 1901 report (pp 20-3) gives an account of a speech by Pádraig Pearse in the Hall on 2 March 1902 commending the giving of classes ‘for the study of our native language, and forms of self-culture amongst our members.’ He added ‘There is a certain bad old tradition that one cannot be a good Irishman unless he “takes a dhrop”. Now, I think you will all allow if there is one body in Ireland which is concerned more than another for the maintenance of genuine Irish traditions, that body is the Gaelic League … [and] in the ranks of no body in Ireland will you find proportionally so many total abstainers as in those of the Gaelic League’. Pearse suggested that there should be more cooperation between the Gaelic League and the temperance movement. In 1906, it was reported (p. 20) that ‘owing to several exceptional expenses, rendered necessary by the increase of membership and the extension of temperance work, we have not been able to reduce our indebtedness to the Bank’. The statement of accounts noted that £1,405 6s 5d was owed to the National Bank by December 1906. The front covers of the booklets have ink drawings of the Hall fronting onto Church Street.

Programmes for concert performances at Father Mathew Hall. The file includes fliers for concerts by the Father Mathew Choral Society, in aid of the Brian Boru Fete (1914), by the Colmcille Branch of the Gaelic League (1918), for the Annual Colmcille Concert (1920), 'The Colleen Bawn' by The Mathew Choral Union (Easter 1920), and for a pageant titled 'Scenes from the Life of St. Patrick' (1921).

Fliers for concerts, recitals and Father Mathew celebrations at the Temperance Hall, Rochestown, County Cork. The coloured fliers were printed by Hickey & Byrne, Cork.

Expenditure and receipt book for Father Mathew Hall, Church Street. The inside cover is annotated with a ‘History of Fr. Mathew Hall – copied from the other ledger (1881-1926)’. The history reads: ‘1891: Hall in Church St. formally opened up by Archbishop Walsh. Fr. Columbus Maher OSFC (President)’. The history chronicles extensions, leases and other financial matters concerning the Hall property. The remainder of the volume is made up of expenditure and receipt accounts from Sept. 1934-Sept. 1937. Expenditure is listed under the headings of details, cash and cheques. Receipts are listed under details, cash, total and lodgements. The entries include figures for rents (to the Merchant Tailors), rates (to Dublin Corporation) and the sales of tickets for pantomimes and for various badges, medals, certificates and other paraphernalia.

Hall-marked silver and bronze Father Mathew Feis medals of uniform Celtic Cross design. Some of the medals have an orange ribbon fastener. The medals are engraved on the reverse with:
• ‘1st prize Drawing & Designing (Class B). 1924’.
• ‘Club Swinging Seniors. 1929’.
• ‘Physical Culture – 1928-29-30. Maggie Hamilton’ (digital image above).
• ‘Swedish Drill. Maggie Hamilton. 1930’.
• ‘2nd Prize / Domestic Science / Crochet / 1925’.
• ‘2nd Prize / Domestic Science/ Overall / 1925’.
• ‘2nd Prize / Sewing / Class D / 1926’.
• ‘Senior Club Swinging / 1930’.
• ‘Senior Club Swinging / 1931’.
• ‘Physical Culture / 1931’.
• ‘Senior English Elocution / 1931 / Second’.
Three of the Celtic Cross Feis Maitiú medals have no engraving on the reverse. The file also includes the metal die used to strike the Feis medal.

Programmes for the Father Mathew Feis, Cork. The printed programmes include timetables and syllabuses of competitions, and souvenir publications. The programmes list the dates and times of the competitions and the names of the various judges and adjudicators. The following programmes are extant: 1927-8; 1932; 1937-8; 1941; 1946; 1961; 1963-4; 1968; 1971-9;
1980-9; 1990-9; 2000-13; 2015.

Two photographs of the Father Mathew Hall Orchestra on stage. The group includes Fr. Gerald McCann OFM Cap. (front row, fifth from the right). Ink stamp on the reverse of one the prints reads: ‘Thomas Mathews, photographer, 6 Wynnfield Rd., Rathmines, Dublin’.

Letter from Antoinette Reilly, Bord Fáilte, to Fr. Christopher Twomey OFM Cap. enclosing £200 in payment for permission to reproduce photographs of the plaster-work in Father Mathew Hall. With a copy of 'Ireland of the Welcomes', 49 (Mar.-Apr. 2000), which includes a feature on ‘Father Mathew Hall: A Celtic Revival Treasure’ by Nicola Gordon Bow (pp 14-21).

Letters from Arnold Bax (1883-1953), 155 Fellows Road, London, and Grosvenor Hotel, Chester, to Fr. Michael O’Shea OFM Cap., President, Father Mathew Hall, Cork. In 1929 the Feis Maitiú Corcaigh invited Bax, a well-known composer and poet, to become an adjudicator marking the beginning of a 24-year friendship with the prestigious local music festival. Most of the correspondence relates to arrangements for the Cork Feis and other matters of musical interest. The file includes fifteen original items in Bax’s hand. With contemporary manuscript and later typescript copies of Bax’s letters. The file also includes a typescript appreciation of Arnold Bax possibly written by Fr. O’Shea. It reads ‘The way he [Bax] came to Cork was simple enough. I attribute his coming to the initiative of Frau Fleischmann in the meeting of the Feis Maitiú Committee that was considering adjudicators for the year 1929. I remember at the time that it was mentioned that Bax had rather a Celtic strain in his compositions and the he would like to come’. Also includes a newspaper cutting of a letter from Bax to the 'Daily Telegraph' referring to a performance by a choir at the Catholic Cathedral in Cork. In Irish and English.

Newspaper cuttings book compiled and annotated by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. Printed stamp on inside front cover reads: ‘Franciscan Capuchin Library, Church Street, Dublin’. The volume includes:
A public meeting in Father Mathew Hall of the Dublin Vigilance Committee in furtherance of the movement for the suppression of evil literature ('Freeman’s Journal', 2 May 1910).
Letters to the 'Freeman’s Journal' re the influence of elements of the Gaelic League on the Father Mathew Feis in Dublin. Includes a letter from Eoin MacNeill (14 Mar. 1912).
Report of the annual retreat of Father Mathew Hall Total Abstinence League of the Cross (c.1914).
‘The Church in America’, an illustrated lecture in Father Mathew Hall by Fr. Leonard Brophy OSFC ('Evening Telegraph', 10 Jan. 1914).
Father Mathew Feis. Statement by Fr. Alphonsus at prize distribution ('Evening Telegraph', 3 July 1919).
Father Mathew Feis Concert ('Irish Independent', 30 Apr. 1919).
Photographic print of the Graignamanagh Temperance Band, County Kilkenny, winners of the first prize at the annual Father Mathew Feis in Dublin in 1913 and in 1914. (See digital image above).
The opening of the Father Mathew Feis in Dublin with a report of the speech given by Fr. Canice Bourke OFM Cap., Vice-President of the Feis (5 April 1920).
Results at the Father Mathew Feis in Dublin, 1920.