Showing 36 results

Letters from An tAthair Peadar Ó Laoghaire, Castlelyons, County Cork, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. The letters relate to instruction in the Irish language (particularly for children), and translations of prayers and other religious material from English into Irish. In a letter (9 Nov. 1918) O’Leary expresses his hope that Bibby, Father Augustine, and Brother Bernard have all escaped the flu and ‘are all keeping free from that plague’. In another letter (Dec. 1918) O’Leary wrote ‘20 years ago people used to write to me and say “An tAthair Peadar”’. He also states that he is in good health and feels blessed ‘to have much energy in my 80th year’. In another letter (27 Feb. 1919) he argued that ‘the writers of religious poetry in English should all be gathered together and taken out and shot! Why do they take it for granted that because poetry is religious it may be nonsense!’. He later claimed that ‘those English religious hymns are really absurd’ (Mar. 1919). In another letter (23 Mar. 1919) O’Leary wrote ‘if you want to be sure of the real sound of the words get a real native speaker to say the words for you’. In December 1919 O’Leary invited Fr. Albert to Cork and to stay for a fortnight as he wanted to talk about ‘those little hymns of mine’. The file includes notes and some Irish language extracts and translations of mostly religious material.

Notes compiled by John O’Connell (1843-1905), a grandson of Daniel O’Connell, ‘The Liberator’. The book contains accounts of various Provincial Chapters of the Capuchin Order in Ireland, records of personnel changes in various Capuchin communities, and notes on meetings and other activities of the Third Order of St. Francis in Kilkenny. Records include membership and ordination lists. Newspaper cuttings are pasted into the volume. A photographic print of the Capuchin Friary at Rochestown in also extant in the volume. A partial index is also given:
• List of Third Order Brothers in 1895
• List of Third Order Novices in 1897
• List of Third Order Novices in 1898
• Members of Council in 1895
• Collectors on Feast days
• Canopy and Banner bearers
• Monthly collectors
• Portinuncula arrangements
• Capuchin Chapter, 1898
• Third Order election, 1898
• Immaculate Conception and Christmas Arrangements, 1898
• List of Third Order Brothers for 1899
• Ordinations
• Appointment of a Commissary Visitor to Third Order branches in England
• Vergers and collectors, Holy Thursday
• Sunday and Holiday collectors
• List of Third Order brothers in 1902
A list is given on page 21 of ‘students who left the convent in Kilkenny … for Church Street, Dublin, about the ninth of April 1900, received the tonsure and minor orders on Saturday, 22nd September 1900’. The list includes the names of Brothers Sylvester Mulligan, Angelus Healy, Stanislaus Kavanagh and Albert Bibby’.

A file containing postcards sent to Fr. Richard Henebry. The correspondents include Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. and Vicar A. Suppiger (Solothurn, Switzerland). Some of the cards seemingly relate to the cause of the sixteenth and seventeenth century Irish martyrs presented to the ecclesiastical authorities in Rome. Most of the images on the postcards depict scenes from the continent (including various sites in Rome). One of the postcards shows the Father Nicholas Sheehy Demonstration in Clogheen, County Tipperary, 1898. The card from Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. shows the interior of the Church of St. Francis in Kilkenny (May 1905). The cards are extant in an elaborate leather pouch.

Draft recollections of deceased Irish Capuchin friars compiled by an unknown author (but certainly by another friar). The texts are titled ‘Some who have gone before’ and ‘Predecessors / A Capuchin Reverie’. The text includes personal recollections of:
Fr. Leonard Brophy OFM Cap. (1869-1930)
Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. (1877-1925)
Fr. Matthew O’Connor OFM Cap. (d. 27 Apr. 1930)
Br. Felix Harte OFM Cap. (d. 11 Jan. 1935)
Fr. Fidelis Neary OFM Cap. (d. 22 June 1932)
Fr. Sebastian O’Brien OFM Cap. (1867-1931)
Fr. Paul Neary OFM Cap. (d. 20 June 1939)
The text also refers to several friars who have been given pseudonyms such as ‘Philemon’, ‘Junius’, and ‘Marcion’. The text includes references to Fr. Albert’s role in the 1916 Rising and in the later revolutionary period. It reads: ‘He felt, as few did, the piercing griefs of the young widows of Easter Week. Often would he visit them of an evening. … He made friends with the wistful little son and daughter who were orphaned by the bullets that took [Thomas] MacDonagh’s life away, and who were made motherless by the cruel waves that closed over the drowning body of the patriot’s bride [Muriel MacDonagh drowned in the sea off Skerries, County Dublin, on 9 July 1917]. For them he had a special corner in his affections. All his heart went out to that wee pair, so tragic, so utterly lonely’. The file also includes an attached clipping referring to the re-interment of the bodies of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. and Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. in Rochestown Capuchin Cemetery on 14 June 1958

Following the deaths in exile of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. (d. 1925) and Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. (d. 1935), there were numerous calls to have their bodies returned to Ireland. Prominent republican supporters in the United States and Old IRA men in Ireland frequently petitioned ecclesiastical authorities to have the bodies of the ‘two patriot priests’ repatriated. These calls were initially rejected, and the outbreak of the Second World War prompted a postponement of the campaign. In 1954, a repatriation committee was set up by Cork No. 1 Brigade of the Old IRA to collect the funds necessary to defray the expenses involved in returning the remains to Ireland. Florence O’Donoghue, head of intelligence for the Cork Brigade during the War of Independence, was appointed Honorary Secretary. Cornelius Neenan was appointed the Committee’s representative in the United States. Aside from the financial difficulties, the Committee also had to contend with a certain reluctance on behalf of the church authorities in having the bodies of two priests moved in such an overtly public manner. The reburial was a departure from the normal rule of the Capuchin Franciscan Order. Also, as they were priests, a high religious content would have to be included in any civil ceremonies connected with the repatriation. Having at length gained the approval of both the state and the church, the repatriation took place in 1958. On 13 June, the priests’ remains arrived at Shannon Airport to be greeted by Seán T. O’Kelly, President, Ėamon de Valera, Taoiseach, Fr. Hilary McDonagh OFM Cap., Capuchin Vicar Provincial, and many representatives of the Old IRA. The funeral cortege then proceeded to Cork for a requiem mass in Holy Trinity Capuchin Church. Fr. Albert and Fr. Dominic were interred in the cemetery attached to Rochestown Capuchin Friary on 14 June 1958. The sub-series consists of correspondence, newspaper clippings, printed ephemera and photographs connected with the reparation campaign and ceremony in 1958. The series also includes records relating to the unveiling of a memorial to the two priests on the grounds of the Capuchin Friary in Raheny, Dublin, by veterans of Fianna Éireann in 1959.