An illustration by Seán O’Connor (also known as John ‘Blimey’ O’Connor), a London-born republican prisoner at Tintown No. 3 Camp at the Curragh in County Kildare. The drawing is dated July 1923 and is titled ‘Frongoch’, a reference to the well-known internment camp in North Wales in which O’Connor and nearly two thousand Irish prisoners were detained following the 1916 Rising.
The volume contains information in respect of ticket sales and cash derived from various lectures and concert performances at Father Mathew Hall, Church Street. The Hall was regularly frequented by those interested in promoting cultural revivalist activities such as storytelling and festivals of native song and dance. The volume records that Pádraig Pearse gave a lecture in the Hall entitled ‘Education in Ancient Ireland’ on 20 Nov. 1905. On 29 Jan. 1906, the Chevalier Sheeran gave a talk on subject of the ‘alleged atrocities in the Congo Free State’. Each entry is signed by a secretary or officer of the Hall Committee. The signatories include J.W. Whitmore and J. Scanlan.
A single ticket of James Joseph O’Kelly for a journey from Le Havre to Dublin (via Southampton and London). 20 February 1871. With a cover addressed to ‘Monsieur O’Kelly, Hotel de Londres, Le Havre, France’. The one-page account note is endorsed ‘7205’.
Ticket for ‘A Grand Dramatic Performance’ given by the Dramatic Club at the Father Mathew Centenary Hall, Church Street. Fr. Columbus Maher OSFC (1835-1894) is noted as President of the Hall.
Ticket for the annual concert of the Colmcille branch of Conrad na Gaelige in Father Mathew Hall, Church Street, Dublin, on 30 April 1920. An address by Fr. Augustine Hayden OSFC was given at the concert.
An image of Capuchin friars and other individuals on top of a belt-driven thresher feeding sheaves of corn into the thresher drum. The image was taken on the farm adjoining Ard Mhuire Friary.
‘Paget Prize Plate Co., Ltd., Watford’ box. The box contains a manuscript note which reads: ‘With Fr. Russell’s compliments. Negatives of Thomastown Castle, County Tipperary. Front and back views. Maynooth, 27 Nov. 1913’. The box contains three glass plate negatives. A front and rear view of Thomastown Castle, the childhood home of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC (1790-1856), and a photographic image of a letter from Fr. Mathew. Thomastown Castle, near Golden in County Tipperary, was a large country house built by the Mathew family. The earliest house on this site was built by George Mathew and dated to c.1670. The house was enlarged in the Gothic style by Francis Mathew, 2nd Earl of Llandaff, in 1812. The renowned Irish architect, Richard Morrison (1767-1849), redesigned the house incorporating several Gothic features including the ornate towers on the front elevation. Thomastown Castle was the childhood home of Fr. Theobold Mathew OSFC who abandoned a life of privilege to become a Capuchin friar. By the late nineteenth century the fortunes of the Mathew family had declined, and Thomastown Castle had fallen into ruins and the estate was completely abandoned. The ‘Fr. Russell’ referred to in the manuscript note in the file is probably Fr. Mathew Russell, editor of ‘The Irish Monthly’.
A plate showing a sketch of Thomastown Castle in County Tipperary, the birthplace of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC. The sketch is by Denis Santry (1879-1960).