Note from C. Burgess [Cathal Brugha], Dublin Castle Hospital, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., Franciscan Capuchin Church, Church St. It reads: ‘I should be obliged if you dropped in here any time tomorrow or Friday to hear my confession. As there has been a new regulation made here with regard to the admission of the clergy it might be as well if you brought this card with you’. During the Rising Brugha was severely wounded by a hand grenade, as well as by multiple gunshot wounds, and was initially not considered likely to survive. He recovered over the next year, but was left with a permanent limp.
A note from George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) referring to his financial circumstances which forces him to refuse any charitable requests made to him. A manuscript addition to the note reads 'Sorry; but you must write me off-your list of Maecenas. The above is serious, and at present acute. / GBS'.
Note from Military Headquarters, Parkgate Street, to Dublin Metropolitan Police. The note reads: ‘Please tell the Franciscan Fathers at Church Street that the two men they wish to see at Kilmainham Detention Prison should be seen by them tonight’. Printed heading reads: ‘Dublin Metropolitan Police Telephone’. Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh and Thomas J. Clarke were executed on the morning of 3 May
The note reads: ‘Dear Mother, we had to surrender so we march to Phoneix [sic] Park, don’t forget to pray us’. A partially decipherable name and address is given on the reverse: ‘Matthew [ ], 12 Great Longford St, Dublin, off Aungier St.’ The item was found within an envelope annotated: ‘Farewell letter to His mother of a soldier of the I.R.A. who fought for Ireland in the Rising of Easter Week, 1916’.
Note by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. re the existence of an apartment in the Ards House called ‘the Friar’s Room’. It reads: 'The morning after the building and property were taken over from the Land Commission Holy Mass was celebrated in the portion of the building assigned an oratory. In the course of the day one of the fathers remarked to the steward “I expect this is the first time Mass was said here”. The steward was doubtful and mentioned a tradition prevalent … [that] one of the apartments is called “The Friar’s Room”. The explanation given is that about 100 or 150 years ago a friar was accustomed to visit the family and inhabited that room. The steward presumed that when he came, he said Mass in the building'.
Notebook belonging to Martin Savage, Irish Volunteer. The annotation on the first page reads: ‘This book belongs to Martin Savage. I [Fr. Columbus Murphy OFM Cap.] got it from him at Richmond Barracks. It contained a list of the names and addresses of all the Volunteers of his company. I tore them out and burned them. Fr. Columbus’. A later note reads: ‘He [Savage] was subsequently killed in the attack on Lord French. Fr. C.’. The notebook also contains thirteen black and white portrait photographs of unidentified individuals and groups. Three of these photographs can be positively identified as Martin Savage. The other photographs may be of his relations. Some of the photographs have a printed company stamp on the reverse: ‘The Franco Art Co., Grafton Studios, 111 Grafton St. … Dublin’.
