Notes compiled by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. and Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. on the history of Ards House and its acquisition by the Capuchin friars in 1930. Extensive reference is made to the previous occupiers of the estate: 'The Sampsons, the Wrays, the Stewarts, one of whom was married to Lady Isabella Toler, granddaughter of the notorious Lord Norbury are gone, and the Capuchin Fathers are in their ancient home. In the graveyard at Clondahorky, can be seen the grave of the second wife of the first Wray of Ards, and in the grounds of Ards, some trees recall the birthdays of members of the Stewart family. To the Capuchins however, a stronger appeal is made by a lonely tomb in the graveyard around Doe Castle, the last resting place of a Franciscan Friar, Rev. Father Dominick Curden “who departed this life August ye 17th. 1809, aged 85 yrs”'. The file includes a newspaper cutting of a poem titled ‘On the return of the Brown-Robed Friars to Donegal’ by Bernard A. Furey.
An image of HMS 'Vanguard', a British Navy battleship at Cape Town Harbour in South Africa. The ship was used as a royal yacht to transport King George VI and his family to South Africa, the first visit to the country by a reigning British monarch. HMS 'Vanguard' arrived in Cape Town on 17 February, escorted by the South African frigates 'Good Hope', 'Transvaal' and 'Natal' on the last leg of her voyage. The warship departed Cape Town on 22 April 1947.
A group of Irish Capuchin friars at St. Mary of the Angels Church, Athlone, Cape Town, South Africa. Fr. Jarlath Gough OFM Cap. is the present in the photograph (seated, first on the right).
A religious sister (probably from the Sisters of the Holy Cross) with children, probably from a parish school or orphanage in Cape Province, South Africa.
An image of the ‘Irish Plane’ docked at Cape Town in South Africa. The ‘Irish Plane’ was built in 1949 by William Gray & Company in Hartlepool, England, for Irish Shipping Limited. This state-owned company was established in 1941, soon after the outbreak of the Second World War with the object of providing the ships necessary to supply Ireland’s import needs. The 'Irish Plane' served only a short number of years with the Irish Shipping company. It was sold to a Pakistani shipping firm in January 1960 and was eventually scrapped in Karachi in 1971
A view of the exterior of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in George, Western Cape, South Africa. Completed in about 1843, it is the oldest Catholic church in South Africa. A manuscript annotation reads '‘The oldest Church in use in South Africa’.
