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Expenditure and receipt book for Father Mathew Hall, Church Street. An annotation on the front cover reads ‘Day book’. 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 final page reads ‘See New Book’. (CA HA/1/3/15).

Account book of the Sacred Heart Sodality attached to Father Mathew Hall, Church Street. Details are provided in relation to routine expenses such as postage, stationary and repair work on the Hall. The journal appears to have used later as a register book for members, and as a sales book for a film screening in the Hall.

The sub-series contains records relating to various forms of entertainment performed at Father Mathew Hall, Church Street, Dublin. These included exhibitions, concerts, comedic sketches, dramatic plays and until the late 1960s an annual Christmas pantomime. The records also refer to the dancing, choral and orchestra classes which were routinely held in the Hall.

Rules of the Dublin Drama Festival held under auspices of the Father Mathew Hall, Church Street. The competition is confined to amateur drama groups, and players must be bona fide members of the group they are playing with. The winners qualified for the All-Ireland Drama Festival.

Draft resolution forwarded by Fr. Angelus Healy OSFC, Vice-President, Father Mathew Hall. Fr. Angelus suggest that the resolution ‘asks two things … first to endorse the work of the Irish Temperance Association and secondly to appeal for further financial support to enable the Hall Committee to extend their temperance propaganda’. The resolution refers to efforts to curtail the sale of alcohol on Sundays. The report notes that ‘we have Sunday drinking not in the interest of the public but in the interest of the publican’.

Draft letter to Walter Glynn Doolin, engineer, drawing attention to the ‘many defects’ in Father Mathew Hall which must be rectified without delay. The defects mainly relate to poor drainage facilities.

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

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 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’.