Father Mathew Feis (Feis an t-Athair Maitiú) Cork
- IE CA HA/2/2
- Deelreeks
- 1919-2015
Part of Irish Capuchin Archives
The sub-series consists of correspondence, clippings, programmes, and printed materials related to the Feis Maitiú in Cork.
Father Mathew Feis (Feis an t-Athair Maitiú) Cork
Part of Irish Capuchin Archives
The sub-series consists of correspondence, clippings, programmes, and printed materials related to the Feis Maitiú in Cork.
Part of Irish Capuchin Archives
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.
Flier for Father Mathew Centenary Memorial Hall
Part of Irish Capuchin Archives
Flier seeking funds (£800) to complete the building of the Father Mathew Hall, Church Street. The opening paragraph affirms that ‘this Total Abstinence Hall, for one of the poorest and most crowded districts of Dublin, will cost £3,000. It will seat 1,200 people, and the building will also contain a gymnasium, reading rooms, a room for bagatelle and other games, a library, a coffee bar and a caretaker’s apartment’.
Annual Reports and Statements of Accounts
Part of Irish Capuchin Archives
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.
Part of Irish Capuchin Archives
The volume contains information in respect of ticket sales and cash derived from various lectures and concert performances at Father Mathew Hall, Church Street. The Hall was regularly frequented by those interested in promoting cultural revivalist activities such as storytelling and festivals of native song and dance. The volume records that Pádraig Pearse gave a lecture in the Hall entitled ‘Education in Ancient Ireland’ on 20 Nov. 1905. On 29 Jan. 1906, the Chevalier Sheeran gave a talk on subject of the ‘alleged atrocities in the Congo Free State’. Each entry is signed by a secretary or officer of the Hall Committee. The signatories include J.W. Whitmore and J. Scanlan.
Photographic print of Fr. Aloysius Travers in Father Mathew Hall
Part of Irish Capuchin Archives
Photographic print of (fourth from the right) Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. (1870-1957) on a podium with several other clerics in Father Mathew Hall.
Pantomime Performance, Father Mathew Hall, Dublin
Part of Irish Capuchin Archives
Pantomime Audience, Father Mathew Hall, Dublin
Part of Irish Capuchin Archives
An image of cast members of a pantomime production of 'Cinderella' distributing fruit to the audience following a performance in Father Mathew Hall on Church Street in Dublin in about 1955.
Part of Irish Capuchin Archives
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’.
Part of Irish Capuchin Archives
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.