Letter from Fr. Albert Bibby, St. Benedict’s Rectory, 320 West End Street, New York, to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap., re his arrival in New York and to his meeting with Fr. Solanus Casey OFM Cap. He describes Casey as ‘a New Yorker, a great worker in the cause and a grand Friar of genial but somewhat ascetic type. He speaks at meetings, writes in [the] Press, and is the friend and trusted confidant of the right people’. Fr. Albert also refers to divisions in the Irish community in New York and notes that ‘our friends are split up into pieces – too bad. I’m speaking with a grand type of man who with tears in his eyes spoke of Liam M[ellows] … English gold and English diplomacy is at work in sowing the seeds of discord here’. He concludes that ‘the more I see here the greater my appreciation of Ireland’.
A note from Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. referring to his preparations for his departure for the Santa Inés mission in California. Bibby remarks that he arrived in New York City 'almost a wreck' but leaves it in 'pretty good form'.
Letter from Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., St. Francis Hospital, Santa Barbara, to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap., referring to his weakening condition and suggesting that the end is near. He writes ‘I know my dear mother and sisters will feel my death – won’t you write and console them’. He asks to be remembered in a lengthy list of family members and friends. Bibby writes 'Remember me to all the brethren – for no one have I the smallest particle of bitterness, though alas I have often said bitter things for which I in heartily sorrow'.
Letter from Margaret 'Aggie' Bibby to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. She writes that she has met ‘friends of poor Tomás [Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap.] who had just come from America. Immediately after his death the leaders of A.A.R.I.R. made a request on superior Fr. Joseph [Fenlon] to be allowed ship his body to Ireland as Tomás wished. He cabled to Fr. Peter [Bowe]. Reply came two days later: "Bury Fr. Albert in Santa Inez in the usual way". She later notes that care was taken to ensure that Fr. Albert's body was buried in a ‘metal casket hermetically sealed’. She concludes by expressing the hope that her brother's ‘bones will rest in the land he loved so well. Never shall we forget the Franciscan tyrants’.
Michael Collins (standing, second person to the left in the back row) and Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. (seated, first on the left in the second row) at the wedding of Eliza Clancy and Michael O’Brien, 16 Airfield Road, Dublin on 22 November 1920.
A group photograph of Capuchin friars probably on the occasion of ordinations at Holy Trinity Church in Cork. An annotation on the the reverse identifies the friars in the image: ‘Front: Frs. Fiacre (Guardian), Peter (Provincial Minister), the Most Rev. Cohalan, Bishop of Cork, Sylvester, Martin; Back: Frs. Macartan, Bonaventure, Cassin, Felix, Kieran, Pacificus, Edwin, Fintan, Conleth’.
Telegram from Fr. Dominic O'Connor OFM Cap. to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. regarding the death of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. in St. Francis Hospital in Santa Barbara, California. The text reads 'Albert with martyrs of the Gael / peaceful happy death / Dominic'.
Photographic print of Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap., Rector of Rochestown College; Fr. Berchmans Cantillon OFM Cap.; Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap., Superior, Rochestown Capuchin Friary; Fr. Francis Hayes OFM Cap. The original print is pasted onto card with the title: ‘Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork at the College, May 1920’. With three later reproductions.