Circular letter from Seosamh Mac Donnchadha (Joseph MacDonagh), Minister for Labour, Dáil Ėireann, to the Superiors of all Religious Houses in Ireland, enclosing a copy statement, written by a Belfast priest, detailing ‘the Orange atrocities committed on Catholic workers and others last July and August’. MacDonagh asks the Religious Superiors to use ‘their wide influence to assist in the rigid enforcement and maintenance of the Belfast Trade Boycott’. MacDonagh was elected unopposed as a Sinn Féin MP for the Tipperary North constituency at the 1918 general election. He was Director of the ‘Belfast Boycott’, an attempt in 1920–21 to boycott goods from Ulster that were being imported into the south of Ireland. With a printed flier titled ‘Black list, Belfast Economic Boycott’ listing the principal firms acting as distributors for ‘Belfast goods’ in Dublin and in other parts of Ireland.
A collection of street ballad leaflets assembled by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. (1876-1965), a Capuchin friar, in 1921. The handbills relate to events in the War of Independence from 1919-21. This contentious period produced its share of controversial literature mainly in the form of leaflets, handbills, ballads and other forms of popular street literature. The treatment of prisoners during the War of Independence was the subject of political and social outrage and was reflected in popular ballads celebrating the lives of Kevin Barry, Patrick Moran, Thomas Traynor and other republican prisoners executed in Mountjoy Jail in Dublin and in other locations following courts martial from 1920-1. Most of the ballads recounted popular stories told in simple metre, and set to (mostly) traditional airs. The ballad titles include: 'Kevin Barry' 'The Bould Black & Tan' 'God Save the Peelers' 'Commandant McKeown' 'My Little Grey Home in Mountjoy' 'Thomas Traynor / Died for Ireland / Mountjoy Prison / April 26 '21' 'Brave sons of Granuaile' 'The Standard of Green, White & Gold / A Song of Truce' 'Latest Hit / If you're Irish We're goin' to Suppress you'
Pass signed by Major J.W. Morel, Assistant Provost Marshal, Dublin, permitting Fr. Columbus Murphy OFM Cap. ‘to travel in the streets of Dublin on duty and to visit prisoners where allowed’. Stamped and dated. With un-stamped permit allowing Fr. Columbus ‘to travel anywhere in the City and visit prisoners in Richmond [Barracks]’. Indecipherable signature at bottom of pass.
Passes signed by Mervyn Richard Wingfield, 8th Viscount Powerscourt, Assistant Provost Marshal, Dublin, permitting Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. and Fr. Columbus Murphy OFM Cap. to travel between ‘Dublin and England via North Wall or Kingston’ and to the ‘Capuchin Convent, Church Street’.
Photographic postcard print of a half-length portrait of Mrs Joseph Plunkett (Grace Gifford) ‘who married Joseph Plunkett in Kilmainham Prison a few hours before his Execution on May 3rd, 1916’. Printed and Published by the Powell Press, 22 Parliament St., Dublin.
Letter from W.T. Cosgrave, Reading Internment Camp, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap., conveying his sympathy on hearing of the death of Fr. Aloysius’s brother. Cosgrave concludes by declaring his ‘kindest remembrance to all your Fathers – particularly Fathers Augustine and Albert and of course yourself’.
Letter from Clement Shorter (British journalist and literary critic), 16 Marlborough Place, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap., thanking him for letter of sympathy on the death of his wife, Dora Sigerson Shorter.
Letter from Cardinal Michael Logue, Archbishop of Armagh, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, affirming that he has sent the name of Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. to Cardinal Bourne for appointment as chaplain.
A copy letter from Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap. to the Most Rev. Daniel Cohalan, Bishop of Cork, claiming that he knew nothing of Fr. Dominic O'Connor's appointment as chaplain to the IRA until his attention was drawn to a report in the local newspapers.
An image showing funeral procession of Terence MacSwiney on St. Patrick’s Street, Cork on 31 October 1920. Several Capuchin friars are identifiable in the procession including Fr. Cyril O’Sullivan OFM Cap., Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., and Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap.