Memorial card for Captain Richard Coleman ‘who fought for the Freedom of Ireland, Easter, 1916, and died in Usk Prison, England, on December 9th, 1918’.
Dated 9.30 am. Letter from Major A.F. Owen Lewis, General Staff Officer, Irish Command, Headquarters to The Governor, Arbour Hill Detention Barracks: ‘Please allow Father [Columbus] Murphy to interview Pearse the rebel leader and any other rebels whom he may wish to see’. On Royal Arms embossed paper. Faded Ink-stamped: Headquarters Ireland.
Authorisation from Colonel H.V. Cowan, Assistant Adjutant General, Headquarters, Irish Command, Parkgate, Dublin, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. The note reads: ‘The General Officer Commander in Chief directs that every facility be given to his Revered Father Aloysius OSFC to visit rebel prisoners at any of the places of detention or internment, to hear confessions and administer the rights of his Church, at all times’.
Copy note from Major W.S. Lennon, Commandant, Kilmainham Detention Barracks, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. The note reads: ‘The Prisoner H.T. Pearse [sic] desires to see you and you have permission to visit him. Failing you he would be glad to see any of the Capucines [sic]’.
The note reads: ‘Dear Mother, we had to surrender so we march to Phoneix [sic] Park, don’t forget to pray us’. A partially decipherable name and address is given on the reverse: ‘Matthew [ ], 12 Great Longford St, Dublin, off Aungier St.’ The item was found within an envelope annotated: ‘Farewell letter to His mother of a soldier of the I.R.A. who fought for Ireland in the Rising of Easter Week, 1916’.
Copy letter from Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. to the editor of the 'Irish Catholic' protesting against the ‘obvious and unkind suggestion’ made in relation to Thomas MacDonagh in a recent edition of the paper. Fr Aloysius declared: ‘I feel bound to emphatically assert that his preparation for his last moment manifested a depth of Catholic Faith and a tenderness of piety most edifying and impressive and that he received the rites of his Church with a devotion which not easily be forgotten by The Priest who assisted him’
Postcard to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap., Church Street, from ‘E. Ní F’ (Eibhlín Ní Fhoghludha) declaring that a ‘very small room for your friend’ is ready in August. The author also affirms that ‘we have had a very quiet time in Rinn but you know we are very much behind the times’. The photographic print of the postcard shows refurbishment work on Liberty Hall after its destruction in the 1916 Rising. The banner across the façade of the hall reads: ‘James Connolly murdered May 12th 1916’.
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. …’.
