This section contains leases and deeds relating to the acquisition by the Capuchin friars of premises on Father Mathew Quay. The Quay is situated on a reclaimed marsh which was located outside the old city walls. Historically, the area was known by several names, some of which are used in the deeds described below including Island Nagay, Red Abbey Island and Marsh, and Morrison’s Island after a family which was prominent in the civic affairs of Cork in the eighteenth century. From about 1800 it was commonly known as Charlotte Quay before being renamed Father Mathew Quay in honour of the Capuchin friar and ‘Apostle of Temperance’. After the reclamation of the marsh in the eighteenth century, the area became an important merchant, commercial and industrial centre. John Henry Gamble, a notable businessman engaged in the provisioning trade, held leasehold interests in several of the premises on Charlotte Quay which were subsequently acquired by the Capuchins (see CA HT/2/1/1/5, CA HT/2/1/1/7, and CA HT/2/1/1/9). J.H. Gamble & Company was later acquired by the famous food provisioning company, Crosse and Blackwell Limited. Another prominent trader engaged in business on the Quay was Robert Warner, a master cooper and vintner. In 1875 Warner leased a substantial plot of ground on Charlotte Quay to Fr. Cherubini Mazzini OSFC for 750 years. This ground was subsequently used as the site for the present-day Holy Trinity Friary (See CA HT/2/1/2/13). The section also includes many legal documents covering negotiations between the Capuchins and Alicia Louisa Seward, a granddaughter of Robert Warner, for the outright purchase of the freehold of the property. This purchase was realized in 1951. The section also includes the lease made to Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC in 1832 of a plot of ground on Morrison’s Island upon which Holy Trinity Church was subsequently built (see CA HT/2/1/2/10).
A Charles Stewart Parnell Christmas greeting card (with oval portrait print). Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap. seemingly also obtained Parnell’s autograph slip which he afterwards laid into the volume underneath the card.
A view of the changing of the military guard outside the National History Museum at the rear of Leinster House, Dublin. The soldiers are walking towards the pathway which leads to the North Road running between the Museum and the Department of the Attorney General.
A photograph an Irish National Army officer (identified as ‘Captain Heaslip’ in the original caption) conversing with a Major in the Worcestershire Regiment as the former prepares to assume guard duties at the Bank of Ireland building on College Green in Dublin. This was one of several significant public handovers from the British administration to the Provisional Government during 1922. The event was noteworthy as it was first time that the historic Bank of Ireland building (prior to 1801 it housed the Parliament of Ireland) was guarded by non-British troops.
A postcard print of the Cenotaph monument on Leinster Lawn (situated on the Merrion Square side of Leinster House). The Cenotaph was unveiled on 13 August 1923 to commemorate both Arthur Griffith, the President of Dáil Éireann, and Michael Collins, the revolutionary leader who was killed during the Civil War. It was designed by Professor George Atkinson (1880-1941), the headmaster of the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. Plaques showing Griffith and Collins in relief were placed at the base of the cross with an inscription taken from the Annals of the Four Masters which read ‘Do Chum Glóire Dé agus Onóra na hÉireann’ (For the Glory of God and the Honour of Ireland). Following the assassination of Kevin O’Higgins, a leading Irish Free State minister, in 1927, an additional plaque was fixed to the monument. The Cenotaph was replaced with a more permanent structure (designed by the OPW architect Raymond McGrath) in 1950.
