Letters expressing satisfaction with the excellent discipline and work of the Boys’ Brigade of Church Street. Many of the letters are from employers seeking boys to perform paid work. Correspondents include John. J. White, Cork Factory & Warehouse, Dublin, 'The Irish Rosary', St. Saviour’s Priory, Dominick Street, Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Church Street, and P.D. Hartnett, grocer, 71 Great Strand Street, Dublin.
Letter from the Most Reverend Henry Henry, Bishop of Down and Connor, to [Fr. Mark McDonnell OSFC], referring to a request made by one of his Belfast priests to establish a Boys’ Brigade similar to the one founded on Church Street. Archbishop Henry asks for a copy of the rules and inquires whether ‘the results produced would justify the expenditure of time and trouble and I suppose funds’.
An unsigned draft letter to Fr. Benignus Gannon, Provincial Minister of the Order of Friars Minor, enclosing copies of the preliminary rules and constitution of the Catholic Boys’ Brigade. The author requests ‘a statement as to how far your Order on Merchants’ Quay, Dublin, is identified with the said “Catholic Boys’ Brigade” …’. Reference is also made to the need for the three Capuchin friars identified as clerical trustees of the organisation to sign over their trusts.
Letters from William Mooney & Sons, solicitors, 16 Fleet Street, Dublin, to Fr. Mark McDonnell OSFC regarding the possession of properties held by John Butterly in May Lane and their transfer to the lay trustees of the Catholic Boys’ Brigade, Dublin.
Minutes of two meetings of the Catholic Boys’ Brigade Committee, Church Street, referring to the payments of subscription fees and the tenders for the installation of railing outside the Brigade Hall.
Copy letter from Fr. Paul Neary OSFC to Timothy Harrington, Lord Mayor of Dublin. Fr. Paul refers to a dispute between the Committee of the Catholic Boys’ Brigade and the Capuchin friars of Church Street. Fr. Paul states that the lay Committee of the Brigade are organising an annual meeting without their sanction and wishes to lay these facts before the Mayor. Fr. Paul concludes by declaring that they ‘have no grievances with the Boys as such nor do we intend to oppose the meeting’.
‘Lists of applications for Church Street made by Dispossessed Tenants’. The lists provide the names of local tenants who are seemingly occupying tenements, their addresses, and occupations. Notes are made of which tenants responded to ‘cards sent out’ and those which did not. With a cover sent to Fr. Nicholas Murphy OSFC by ‘Labourers’ Dwellings and Lodging-Houses, Corporation of Dublin’.
A report titled ‘housing in Dublin’ by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. referring to the corporation-sponsored Church Street and Beresford Street Improvement Schemes. Fr. Angelus refers to the history of Capuchin involvement in the campaign for housing improvement in the areas around Church Street. He wrote: ‘The Capuchins were directly responsible for the improvements that began in 1890, when Father Columbus [Maher] erected the Father Mathew Hall. Later on Father Nicholas [Murphy] obtained possession of the area extending from the Hall down to the Church. This was a very insanitary area, with a number of courts and alleys of ill-repute. It is now occupied by an extension of the Hall and by the garden attached to the Capuchin Friary. Reference is also made in the report into the Church Street Tenement Disaster of September 1913. This article was published in 'The Father Mathew Record', Vol. 27, No. 8 (Aug. 1934), pp 407-16.
Correspondence of Fr. Maurice Dowd OFM Cap., Capuchin Friary, Church Street, mainly concerning the removal of the bridge at Broadstore which would permit the transit of double-decker buses on Upper Church Street and ‘which would open up a great thoroughfare to North County Dublin, as well as to West Cabra, Glasnevin and Finglas’. Other projects referred to in the correspondence include the erection of a statue to Our Lady of Lourdes on the Church grounds and a proposal to use a small park opposite the Church to commemorate Holy Year. Correspondents include Brendan Corish TD, Minister for Local Government, Jack Belton, Lord Mayor of Dublin and J.A. Harbison, Chief Medical Officer, Dublin Corporation. The file includes a clipping from the 'Irish Independent', 7 July 1953, of a public notice re the proposed acquisition of land for the widening and improvement of Church Street.
