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.
Specifications from E.J. Creed, 26 New Ireland Road, Rialto, J. Treacy & Co., 17 Stoneybatter, Dublin, and J. Seward, 26 New Ireland Road, Rialto, Dublin, for internal and external painting works of the president’s room, billiard room, toilet, return room, staircases and other parts of Father Mathew Hall, Church Street. With a manuscript draft of the said specification and contract.
Specification for the reconstruction of seating arrangements at the rear of the auditorium in Father Mathew Hall, Church Street, by J. Seward, 26 New Ireland Road, Rialto, Dublin. Includes a schedule of work to be done, materials to be used and form of tender.
Bound volume annotated on the title page: ‘Register of Entertainments’. The volume contains a schedule of public entertainment (mostly motion pictures) at Father Mathew Hall, Church Street. The entries are listed under the headings of date of entertainment, full name and addresses of person(s) holding entertainment (all are staged by the Father Mathew Hall Committee); title of work presented or delivered; name of author of work or owner of copyright if any; full name and address of the person by whom the work was performed, exhibited or delivered. 2 May 1937-3 October 1937. The films shown include 'Anna Karenina' (1935), 'Escape from Devil Island' (1935), and 'Devil's Squadron' (1936). The remainder of the volume is comprised of an alphabetical list of names and addresses of subscribers to 'The Father Mathew Record'. The end portion of the volume also contains a list compiled in 1936 of Brothers of the Third Order attached to St. Mary of the Angels, Church Street.
