Letters from James P. Sweeney & Co., Falcarragh, Letterkenny, County Donegal, solicitors, and Seán Ó hUadhaigh & Son, 20 Eden Quay, Dublin, solicitors, re negotiations for the sale of cottage and plots of lands at Ards, Creeslough, to Anne Green and Monica Cassidy. The correspondence refers to the need for consent forms from the Commissioner of Charitable Donations and Bequests, information re title from the Land Registry, and a memorandum and articles re the vesting of certain lands at Ards with named trustees of the FMC Trust (enclosed).
Specifications for a local government land improvement scheme for the Ards estate. Includes sketch maps of the old friary residence and adjoining farmyard with a legend indicating the scrub-land to be removed and the existing drainage system. The specification and map were sent to the guardian of Ard Mhuire Capuchin Friary.
Copy extract from the Register of Freeholders re ‘a right to pass and repass on foot and with horses or other animals … over parts of the lands of Cashelmore and Doocashel Glebe’ in County Donegal. It is noted that the Capuchin friars are the owners of these lands by a deed registered on 14 Jan. 1931.
Correspondence of Fr. Berchmans McCarthy OFM Cap., guardian, Ard Mhuire Friary, with Bord Fáilte Éireann, re an application for a grant to widen the road above the Friary as it would be ‘immense benefit to tourism in the area’.
Letter from Irish Shell Ltd. to Fr. Pacificus Jennings OFM Cap., guardian, Ard Mhuire Friary, enclosing a contract agreement for the supply of fuel oil to the friary.
Brochure advertising the sale of Ards House and Estate. The brochure has photographic prints of Sheephaven Bay, Ards House, and the associated workmen’s cottages. It is noted that the sale includes 2,000 acres. Ards House comprises a stone-built Georgian style residence with ‘six reception rooms, a billiard room, 19 principal bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a nursery suite, splendid servant’s quarters, ample garages and stabling, 20 cottages and beautiful pleasure grounds’. The brochure provides details on various facets of the property and notes that the owner (Lady Ena Stewart-Bam) ‘has been in negotiation with the Irish Land Commission, who are quite prepared to give every facility to an intending purchaser’. The agent is noted as Messrs Battersby & Co., 39 Westmoreland Street, Dublin. The brochure also notes: • The sale of the historic ‘Doe Castle’ ruin with about 30 acres of demesne land. • The potential sale of ‘furniture which includes some old and rare pieces and a valuable library’. • That the ‘Ards Estate has been in the possession of the Stewart family for about 150 years. The first Stewart of Ards and the First Marquess of Londonderry were only brothers. The present head, Lady Stewart-Bam of Ards, is selling the property as her husband’s chief interests are in South Africa’. • That the price for the freehold is £50,000 including sporting and fishing rights.
Letters from the Most Rev. William MacNeely, Bishop of Raphoe (1888-1963), to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. re arrangements for the purchase of Ards House by the Capuchins. A letter of 1 Mar. 1930 expresses his pleasure on hearing that ‘negotiations with the Land Commission have been successful. About the time of taking over the property, really it does not matter; just make arrangements as you consider convenient’. A letter on 18 Mar. 1930 affirms that the friars ‘may fix up an Oratory at once … as soon as things are in order’.
Correspondence of Ronan Daly & Hayes, 12 South Mall, Cork, solicitors, with Fr. Nicholas O’Brien OFM Cap., Provincial Secretary, re an application for an order from the Charitable Commissioners vesting the Ard Mhuire Friary and adjoining lands (consisting of 167 acres 3 roods and 15 perches in the townland of Ards and 38 acres 2 roods in the townland of Rinnsligo, County Donegal) in new trustees (appointed by the FMC trust). Reference (19 Mar. 1976) is made by Fr. Nicholas to the difficulties in locating documents in relation to the purchase of the Ards property from the Irish Land Commission in 1930: 'A search made in the Provincial Archives revealed ecclesiastical documents only (sanction by the Holy See, the local Bishop etc.) I had enquiries made both here in Dublin and in Letterkenny of solicitors whose firms might have been involved in the sale negotiations, but the results were negative. It is possible that the deal was made directly with the representatives of the Land Commission'.
Draft lease from Fr. Patrick Flynn OFM Cap., Guardian, Ard Mhuire Capuchin Friary, County Donegal, to Brendan McFadden, Greenhill, Dunfanaghy, County Donegal, of a portion of lands for five years at an annual rent of £1,550. With draft instructions for the ‘letting of land and farm buildings at Ards’.
File of documents (mainly from the County Donegal Committee of Agriculture) re a scheme to encourage landholders to plant trees on their lands in the county. The file includes information sheets and blank application forms relating to the proposal to plant conifers for a ‘shelter belt scheme in arable fields which cannot be cultivated in the usual way, on steep banks or hillsides, rocky or broken ground practically bare of vegetation, … and in swamps and bogs which cannot be reclaimed for agricultural purposes’. The file also includes a letter from A.M.S. Hanan re an article for the Royal Forestry Society on ‘southern hemisphere conifers in Ireland’ (12 Feb. 1970).
