Letters regarding a dispute over the editorship of the temperance publication, 'The Father Mathew Record', also known as 'The Irish Home Journal'. The file includes a letter from Brian O’Higgins to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OSFC, Provincial Minister, complaining about his dismissal as associate editor of the 'Record' by Fr. Joseph Fenlon OSFC who ‘desired to keep politics out of the Journal’. O’Higgins, a member of Sinn Féin, admits that he is ‘on what is known as “the run”’. With notes by Fr. Edwin regarding the proprietorship of the Journal, and the need to reserve the appointment of editor to the council of the Capuchin Franciscan Order in Ireland. Later, Fr. Joseph wrote to Fr. Edwin confirming his resignation from the Presidency of Father Mathew Hall and the temperance sodality. The file also includes a signed notice of a special meeting of the Hall Committee affirming that the ‘"Record" was started by Fr. Aloysius [Travers], President of the Hall … [and] that the Office of the Record was transferred to the Hall premises’. The committee members contended that the 'Record' magazine was the property of the committee ‘and that the Provincial Superiors acted without consideration of the circumstances when … they decided to take it over and have it conducted independently of the committee and its President’. (10 June 1920).
Correspondence relating to the financing, construction, fitting-out of Father Mathew Hall. Most of the letters refer to estimates for interior furnishing and the fitting out of the Hall. Correspondents include: The National Bank Ltd.; John L. Smallman, sanitary and gas engineer; Henry Kerrill & Sons, engineers, coppersmiths and electricians; Edmundson’s Furnishing & Engineering Co.; Walter Glynn Doolin, 20 Ely Place, Dublin, secretary of the Father Mathew Hall building committee; the Patriotic Assurance Company, 2 College Green, Dublin.
Correspondence relating to the progress of work on the stairs in the St. Brigid’s Hall extension. Correspondents include Edward Murphy, builder and contractor, E.G. O’Neill, architect, 82 Taney Road, Dundrum, Thomas Garland, consulting engineer, 40 Upper Fitzwilliam Street, and Fr. Virgilus Murtagh OFM Cap. With a specification for the said works.
Correspondence mainly relating to repair work and insurance requirements for Father Mathew Hall, Cork. Includes letters from John A. Deasy, consulting engineer, Kelly and Barry & Associates, chartered architects, Br. Paul O’Donovan OFM Cap., and Barry O’Driscoll, solicitor.
Correspondence relating to the redundancy appeals tribunal for a stage manager employed by the Capuchins at Father Mathew Hall from March 1958 to September 1968. Correspondents include Fr. Benjamin O’Connell OFM Cap., Edmund Hayes, solicitor, and Fr. Anthony Boran OFM Cap., Provincial Bursar.
Correspondence relating to the hiring of Father Mathew Hall mostly for rehearsals and performances of theatre shows and plays, and for use as a polling station. The file includes letters from the Dublin Grand Opera Society (DGOS); the British Federation of Festivals for Music, Dance and Speech; the Irish Life Dublin Theatre Festival; Dublin Corporation (regarding the hiring of the Hall for an exhibition in connection with the North King Street Improvement Scheme); Christ Church Cathedral Group; Opera Theatre Company, 18 St. Andrew Street, Dublin 2. The correspondents include Br. Kevin Crowley OFM Cap., President, and John Hanley, caretaker, Father Mathew Hall.
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.
Correspondence of Fr. Columbus Murphy OSFC, President, Father Mathew Hall, regarding demands for payments of income tax. The file includes demand notices and letters from the Inspector of Taxes. In April 1938 Fr. Columbus wrote ‘The Father Mathew Hall is the social centre attached to the Sacred Thirst Sodality. Since 1891 it has provided a club for the people of the district acting as a powerful factor in uplifting these people and encouraging temperance amongst them. In providing for these people decent and safe pastimes and entertainment we produce each year plays, concerts etc the artists in which are drawn from the members of our hall and are of course members of the Temperance Association Sodality. The Hall is heavily in debt and any profits are applied to reduce this debt’. Fr. Columbus later admitted that a good many of the shows staged in the Hall are run at a loss and that the ‘Feis is usually a financial failure – but it is doing good work so we continue’.
Correspondence of Fr. Celsus O’Shea OFM Cap., President, Father Mathew Hall, with Sean Ó hUadaigh, solicitor, 51 Dawson Street, Dublin, mainly concerning the renting of six cottages held by the trustees of Father Mathew Hall. The six cottages were 29-30 Bow Street and 11-15 Nicholas Avenue. The letters relate to efforts to secure the possession of 14 Nicholas Avenue from the relatives of Miss Effie Murphy, a former tenant of the said property (a notice of trespass was issued to George Murphy and his family), and the issuing of general notices to the occupiers in relation to an increase in rents. Other legal issues referred to in the correspondence include counsels’ opinion on title, insurance matters, the accounts of Father Mathew Hall and the title deeds of the Hall. The file includes costs from Ó hUadaigh in relation to leases and other matters pertaining to the title of the above-noted cottages.
Correspondence with the Performing Right Society Ltd., Chatham House, 13 George Street, Hanover Square, London. The correspondence relates to the granting of licences to perform and make use of music controlled by the members of the aforementioned Society at entertainments held in Father Mathew Hall. The correspondents include the Presidents of Father Mathew Hall, Fr. Columbus Murphy OFM Cap., Fr. Charles Brophy OFM Cap., Fr. Michael O’Shea OFM Cap. and Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap. Responding to the claims of infringement of copyright, Fr. Columbus referred to the amateur status of the performers in the musicals and the philanthropic nature of the Association which ran the Hall (21 Nov. 1927). The file includes printed literature from the Society and newspaper clippings reporting a judgement made in a court case taken by the Society against Bray Urban District Council for infringement of copyright ('Irish Independent', 16 Nov. 1927). The dispute was eventually settled when the Father Mathew Hall Committee agreed to pay £3 3s for performing rights’ fees at the Hall. A letter of 12 Oct. 1943 referred to the intention of the Hall Committee to apply to the Metropolitan District Court for a licence to stage dances in St. Brigid’s Hall
