Twelfth annual report of the Father Mathew Hall, Church Street, in 1891. The report notes that ‘in a few days prior to our last annual meeting, this whole building was formally opened by His Grace the Archbishop of Dublin for the advancement of the Total Abstinence cause, and of our Holy Religion in this district of the city’. The report refers to the various fundraising efforts undertaken in support of the local temperance movement. The file also includes a supplemental report (1892). The supplemental report states that an annual meeting ‘should have been held on the third Sunday in January but … His Eminence Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, Archbishop of Westminster, had gone to reap in a better world the reward of a saintly life in this’. The reports include references to attendances at weekly temperance meetings and to the staging of various lectures, exhibitions and performances in the Hall.
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).
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.
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’.
Expenses and receipt book for Father Mathew Hall, Church Street. The entries are recorded under date, details and totals of expenses and receipts. Most of the expenditure relates to services and utilities such as rent, electricity, salaries and repairs. An annotation on the first page reads ‘Continuation from old ledger’ (see CA HA/1/3/12).
Insurance policies from the Sun Insurance Office, 63 Threadneadle Street, London, the Patriotic Assurance Company Ltd., 9 College Green, Dublin, and the Irish Catholic Church Property Insurance Company Ltd., 19-20 Fleet Street, Dublin, for Father Mathew Hall. The polices cover fire insurance, third party indemnity insurance, heating plant insurance and personal accident insurance ‘for each of [the] 100 voluntary helpers in connection with Father Mathew Hall’. The file includes receipts, correspondence and memorandums stating conditions.
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 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 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.
Letters to Walter Glynn Doolin, engineer, from John Kennedy, 11 & 12 Merrion Row, Henry Kerrill & Sons, 80 Drumcondra Road, C. McNamara, 10 Christchurch Place, and others regarding estimates for the installation of gas and lighting fittings in the Father Mathew League of the Cross Hall, Church Street.
