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The Catholic Boys’ Brigade was founded by Fr. Benvenutus Guy OSFC (1860-1927), a Capuchin friar, in March 1894. Mainly composed of impoverished children from the Church Street area, the organisation was initially called St. Joseph’s Boys’ Brigade. The stated objects of the Brigade were ‘to crush vice and evil habits among boys, to instruct them thoroughly in the Christian doctrine … to give them habits of obedience, discipline, and self-respect and love for ecclesiastical authority and holy religion and to promote their moral, physical and temporal well-being’. The idea of forming a Brigade for the Catholic boys of Dublin sprung from the success achieved by the Protestant Boys’ Brigade. The first meeting hall of the Brigade was in a house in Smithfield which was rented at 5s per week. This meeting was held on 24 April 1894 with nine boys in attendance. The organisation grew rapidly. The Brigade Hall was soon relocated to a property (formerly a smelting foundry) at 156 Church Street which was purchased for the sum of £300. The organizing committee also succeeded in obtaining the use of an old vegetable market at the rear of the Hall which was used as a drill yard in 1895. The newly furnished hall and gallery could hold 1,500 attendees. A uniform was supplied to each enrolled boy consisting of a sash, a cap and a badge. An important aspect of the Brigade’s activities was physical exercise and participants routinely trained in ‘physical drilling, figure marching, squad and company drills’. A band was also established under the supervision of Fr. Sebastian O’Brien OSFC (1867-1931). A night-school for instructing illiterate young boys was founded in October 1899 and soon attracted thirty-five students. Religious instruction was supplied by the Capuchin friars. This was initially performed by Fr. Benvenutus Guy OSFC and later by Fr. Paul Neary OSFC (1857-1939). In 1904 the Church Street Capuchins transferred trusteeship of the properties owned by the Catholic Boys’ Brigade to lay stewardship.

Deed of assignment from Fr. Richard Dominick Clarke OSFC to Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Fr. Nicholas Murphy OSFC, Fr. Columbus Maher OSFC and Fr. Bernard Jennings OSFC of his interest in premises on Bow Street (formerly nos. 22 and 23 and the premises at no. 25 on the said street) for the residue of the terms specified in the original leases. In consideration of 10s.

Bound volume containing newspaper clippings providing accounts of the tenement collapse and the subsequent funeral and burial of the seven victims. The clippings also give lists of subscribers to the relief fund established after the disaster. The volume also contains a manuscript list of twenty-seven Capuchin friars at St. Marys of the Angels, Church Street, at Rochestown College, and at Father Mathew’s (Holy Trinity) Church in Cork. The list is headed by Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, ‘the Lord Mayor’s Chaplain’. The list also includes Fr. Joseph Fenlon OSFC, ‘superior of Fr. Mathew’s Church, Cork’, and Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OSFC, President, Rochestown College, Cork. The volume also contains a manuscript list of people with private addresses in the environs of Church Street and North King Street. The list also notes ‘Father Mathew Hall’ for all the signatories. This may be a list of members of a religious sodality or, alternatively, a list of subscribers to the Tenement Disaster fund.

Draft recollections of deceased Irish Capuchin friars compiled by an unknown author (but certainly by another friar). The texts are titled ‘Some who have gone before’ and ‘Predecessors / A Capuchin Reverie’. The text includes personal recollections of:
Fr. Leonard Brophy OFM Cap. (1869-1930)
Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. (1877-1925)
Fr. Matthew O’Connor OFM Cap. (d. 27 Apr. 1930)
Br. Felix Harte OFM Cap. (d. 11 Jan. 1935)
Fr. Fidelis Neary OFM Cap. (d. 22 June 1932)
Fr. Sebastian O’Brien OFM Cap. (1867-1931)
Fr. Paul Neary OFM Cap. (d. 20 June 1939)
The text also refers to several friars who have been given pseudonyms such as ‘Philemon’, ‘Junius’, and ‘Marcion’. The text includes references to Fr. Albert’s role in the 1916 Rising and in the later revolutionary period. It reads: ‘He felt, as few did, the piercing griefs of the young widows of Easter Week. Often would he visit them of an evening. … He made friends with the wistful little son and daughter who were orphaned by the bullets that took [Thomas] MacDonagh’s life away, and who were made motherless by the cruel waves that closed over the drowning body of the patriot’s bride [Muriel MacDonagh drowned in the sea off Skerries, County Dublin, on 9 July 1917]. For them he had a special corner in his affections. All his heart went out to that wee pair, so tragic, so utterly lonely’. The file also includes an attached clipping referring to the re-interment of the bodies of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. and Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. in Rochestown Capuchin Cemetery on 14 June 1958

Letters to Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Provincial Minster, requesting parish missions and retreats. The letters are mostly from local clerics. Some of the letters provide information on religious practices and temperance activities in the locality. The file includes letters requesting missions in Louisburgh (Mayo), Clare Island (Mayo), Westport (Mayo), Carrick-on-Suir (Tipperary), Newport (Mayo), Clonmel (Tipperary), Waterford and Cahir (Tipperary). The file also includes some copy replies from Fr. Paul.

Subscription book containing a list of subscribers and guarantors for the fund for paying off the debt incurred on the construction of St. Mary of the Angels. Entries are listed under name, address and amount subscribed. Some entries are listed under the title of: ‘persons visited by Fr. Paul [Neary] and companion for meeting on 27 Feb. 1899’. A newspaper cutting from the 'Freeman’s Journal' [c.8 Mar. 1897] is pasted onto the reverse of the first leaf. The cutting contains a list of contributors towards the aforementioned fund. A monthly mass register record is extant on five pages at the end of the volume. Several manuscript and newspaper cutting inserts have been removed from the volume and placed in CA CS/2/3/7-8.