A letter from Peter F. Anson, St. Augustine’s, Datchet, Slough, to Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap. seeking additional copies of ‘The Capuchin Annual’. Anson also refers to the possibility of including his illustrations in future additions of the periodical.
A letter from Patrick James Smyth, Auburn Villa, Rathgar, Dublin, to James Joseph O’Kelly, referring to the recruitment of an Irish brigade for service in France. The letter reads ‘Shortly after the capitulation of Sedan, I was informed by Mr. T.D. Sullivan that an accredited agent of the French government was in Dublin … and that he wished to see me’. The letter appears to be incomplete. The letter is endorsed ‘7204’.
A letter from Patrick James Smyth (1823-1885), Auburn Villa, Rathgar, Dublin, introducing James Joseph O’Kelly to Monsieur de Taillon in Caen, France. The letter is endorsed ‘7211’.
Letter from Patrick J. MacNally, Commandant, Collins’ Barracks, Cork, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. enclosing a typescript copy of his unfinished account of the Easter Week Rising. Comdt. MacNally also encloses a rough sketch of the Church Street area upon which he asks Fr. Aloysius to ‘mark roughly the positions of any barricades you saw … [and] houses that were occupied’. He also attaches ‘a sketch of the Bride Street area … to enable you to fix the corner where you stood at the surrender of Eamonn Ceannt’.
Letter from Patrick Holohan, ‘Number: 975, hut 2, Irish Prisoner … Frongoch, North Wales’ to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., Church Street, Dublin, referring to the provision of religious services and giving news of conditions and prisoners at the camp. Holohan adds ‘I was glad to hear that you were with Heuston when he died as I was very fond of him. It is delightful to see all our leaders being converted to the Catholic faith’. With cover which has been opened by the censor.
Letter from Padraig Ó Caoimh, General Secretary of the GAA, to Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap., expressing his happiness on hearing that the bodies of Fr. Albert and Fr. Dominic will be repatriated to Ireland. He adds: ‘I had the honour and pleasure of serving mass for Fr. Dominic while in Parkhurst. Up to the time of the truce he was only allowed to say it every Sunday and after that daily … We were life long friends … the night before he left Cork and Ireland – he came to see me in a house where I was on the run’. Ó Caoimh joined the Irish Volunteers in 1916; three years later he gave up school teaching to become an officer with the Cork Brigade of the IRA. In 1920 he was appointed manager of the Employment Bureau established by the First Dáil. Soon afterwards, he was captured by the British and sentenced to 15 years penal servitude. He was released in 1922. In 1929 he resigned from his position as manager of a tobacco company following his appointment as General Secretary of the GAA, a position he held until 1964.
