Report by Gráinne Mallon & Associates, 6 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, in association with Shane Redmond, auctioneer, on the properties held by the Capuchin Order on Church Street. The report delineates the existing properties held by the Capuchin Order (ecclesiastical premises, the Friary, Father Mathew Hall and the Day Centre) and makes recommendations in respect of rationalising the use of the properties in the context of urban renewal and development schemes proposed for the area. With a cover letter from Shane Redmond. The file also includes copy maps and plans. The cover is endorsed: ‘Carried out by Fr. Dan Joe O’Mahony OFM Cap. with a view to selling Father Mathew Hall’. With a letter from Shane Redmond (28 Oct. 1997) recommending that the ‘Order examine the many options the property can generate and that a decision may be taken about the future of its most influential friary in the capital city, based on the level of services the Capuchins will be able to provide there in the new millennium’.
Copy architectural, ordnance survey and sketch maps for an apartment and office development at the Bow Street Friary site. Includes copy plans by James Ahern, architects, 29 Belgrove Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3. (Scale: 1:500). The Bow Street Friary site comprised 1,544 square meters. Some of the plans relate to the proposal for the new Capuchin Friary on Church Street.
Letters referring to the campaign to preserve Father Mathew Hall as a community or heritage resource. The file includes letters from Senator Dermot Fitzpatrick and An Taisce which expressed concern that the Hall ‘should be restricted to use as a public amenity for the north side of Dublin and for the city generally’.
An image of the performers in a production of ‘Aladdin’ in Father Mathew Hall in Cork for the 1923-4 pantomime season. The Capuchin friar (second row, first on the right) is Fr. Columbus Murphy OFM Cap. (1881-1962).
Letter from Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap., President, Father Mathew Hall, Cork, to Fr. Conrad O’Donovan OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, outlining the financial position of the Hall. Fr. Nessan affirmed that finances are ‘a matter of real concern because of the rising costs and reduced theatre patronage. At present we are losing money. It costs over £2,000 a year to run the Hall’. Fr. Nessan also refers to the changing nature of the activities in the Hall and to his intention to attract a ‘younger and wider audience’. A statement of financial accounts is enclosed.
Plan for heating installation at Father Mathew Hall, Cork. Includes plans of the ground floor (stage, auditorium, foyer); mezzanine floor (balcony); first floor (billiard room, table tennis room, male and female dressing rooms and offices). Plan by John A. Deasy, consulting engineer, 16 Arran Quay, Dublin 7. The original plan is dated Apr. 1967 with revisions made in Mar. 1971.
Letters and related records relating to the lease of Father Mathew Hall, Cork, by the Everyman Group Theatre Company. The agreement with the Company specified a lease for five seasons (October-April) commencing in November 1972 with a ‘view to increasing the occupancy of the Hall’. The Everyman Playhouse Ltd. agreed to have exclusive use and management of the Hall except during the period when the Feis Maitiú would be held. The file includes letters from Fr. Senan Dooley OFM Cap., Edmund Hayes, solicitor, draft and copy agreements re the lease and reports of the meetings of the representatives appointed by the Capuchin Provincial Definitory to negotiate with the Everyman Company. With a newspaper cutting from the 'Evening Echo' (6 Oct. 1972) titled ‘The Realisation of a Theatre “Dream”’ referring to the co-operative spirit of the Capuchin friars who agreed to a lease of the Hall ‘that covers the auditorium, offices and dressing rooms, but not the recreational rooms on the top floor’. The file also includes a copy page from 'The Father Mathew Record', 49, no. 12 (Dec. 1956), p. 7, giving a history of the Hall in Cork.
Letters to Fr. Maurice O’Dowd OFM Cap., President, Father Mathew Hall, Cork, from Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap., Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia, asking him to convey his thanks to the Father Mathew Players in Cork for putting on a pantomime in aid of the Capuchin missions in Africa. Fr. Killian writes: ‘You have helped supply us with the funds that put up stations, churches and schools and their furnishing. So your loyal assistance in the missions of Barotseland by solid buildings which will yet be the centres of a Catholic country’.
Silver and bronze medals awarded at the Cork Feis Maitiú. The medal design incorporates a design showing a bust of Father Theobald Mathew. The legend reads ‘Feis Maitiú Corcaigh’.
