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
An image of the performers in a production of ‘Aladdin’ in Father Mathew Hall in Cork for the 1923-4 pantomime season. The Capuchin friar (second row, first on the right) is Fr. Columbus Murphy OFM Cap. (1881-1962).
The fonds consists of the correspondence and papers of Capuchin friars detailing their involvement with participants in the national struggle. The majority of the material dates from 1916-1925 and includes many records highlighting the roles played by Irish Capuchins in ministering to republican leaders and their relations. Of particular interest is a large collection of prison letters including the correspondence of some of the leading figures of the Irish Revolution. The fonds also contains a large collection of republican publicity material, newspapers and miscellaneous items of ephemera and artefacts mostly relating to the military and political campaign organised by nationalists for Irish independence. A smaller collection relating to the repatriation of the bodies of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. and Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. from the United States to Ireland in 1958 is also extant.
A letter from Fr. Augustine Hayden OFM Cap. to Elizabeth O’Farrell recounting the events of the Easter Rising. The letter is dated 7 February 1953 and reads: ‘… I was very pleased to read your very accurate account of when and where you met Father Columbus [Murphy] at that time when I happened to be Guardian (superior) of our Friary at Church Street. It will interest you to learn that actually I did not hear of the surrender at the GPO, nor at the Four Courts until the following (Sunday) morning at 6.55 when Fr. Columbus returned to the Friary and told me when I was waiting to say the 7 o’clock Mass. For some reason or other the military concealed both surrenders from me though I had been speaking to them twice that afternoon and evening. I actually spoke to our grand boys from the street where North King Street crosses Church Street above the Father Mathew Hall where I had been all that afternoon. I actually got a truce until the following morning [between] the boys and the military each promising not to fire if the other did not fire. …’.
