Statement by Fr. Augustine Hayden OFM Cap., ‘Franciscan Monastery, Rochestown, County Cork, formerly of the Priory, Church Street, Dublin’, referring to the hostilities during Easter Week, 1916. The record (which is incomplete) is a copy of the statement made by Fr. Augustine to the Bureau of Military History (held in the Irish Military Archives). The statement concludes on Monday, 8 May 1916, before the executions of Michael Mallin, Seán Heuston, Con Colbert and Éamonn Ceannt.
Information booklet explaining the history and work of the Irish Capuchin missionaries in the Prefecture Apostolic of Victoria Falls, Barotseland, Northern Rhodesia.
Report on the prospects of the South African mission by Fr. Edward Walsh OFM Cap. and Fr. Canice Bourke OFM Cap., St. Mary’s, Cape Town for Fr. Kevin Moynihan OFM Cap., Provincial Minister. The report refers to a meeting with Bishop Bernard Cornelius O’Riley, Vicar Apostolic of the Cape of Good Hope, to discuss the areas (Athlone and Parow) which have been offered to the Irish Capuchins. A description of both districts and their populations is given. The financing of the proposed mission is also referred to. The report notes that ‘there is a well-disposed Catholic in Athlone, a Mr. Murphy, who came to the Cape during the Boer War, and settled here’. The report also affirms that ‘the people seem to want us badly in Athlone – there certainly is a hunger for a priest there’.
Brochure advertising the sale of Ards House and Estate. The brochure has photographic prints of Sheephaven Bay, Ards House, and the associated workmen’s cottages. It is noted that the sale includes 2,000 acres. Ards House comprises a stone-built Georgian style residence with ‘six reception rooms, a billiard room, 19 principal bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a nursery suite, splendid servant’s quarters, ample garages and stabling, 20 cottages and beautiful pleasure grounds’. The brochure provides details on various facets of the property and notes that the owner (Lady Ena Stewart-Bam) ‘has been in negotiation with the Irish Land Commission, who are quite prepared to give every facility to an intending purchaser’. The agent is noted as Messrs Battersby & Co., 39 Westmoreland Street, Dublin. The brochure also notes: • The sale of the historic ‘Doe Castle’ ruin with about 30 acres of demesne land. • The potential sale of ‘furniture which includes some old and rare pieces and a valuable library’. • That the ‘Ards Estate has been in the possession of the Stewart family for about 150 years. The first Stewart of Ards and the First Marquess of Londonderry were only brothers. The present head, Lady Stewart-Bam of Ards, is selling the property as her husband’s chief interests are in South Africa’. • That the price for the freehold is £50,000 including sporting and fishing rights.
Transcript of Fr. Ronan Herlihy’s oral account of his missionary work in Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia). The file was compiled as part of Dr. Charles Flynn’s resources for the study of mission history at Maynooth University. This project was funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences. The Irish Capuchin Archives holds a digital copy of this file.
Recollections by an t-Athar Eláir OFM Cap. (Fr. Hilary McDonagh OFM Cap.) of the re-internment of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. and Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. in the cemetery of Rochestown Capuchin Friary, County Cork, in 1958. The notes were compiled by Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap. The manuscript is incomplete.
Publication by Fr. Owen O’Sullivan OFM Cap. on the history of the Irish Capuchins in Zambia, 1931-1981 ([Zambia, 1982]). The chapter headings include: the pioneers; the land and its people in a changing world; a beginning is made; working through schools; the friars’ conditions; progress step by step and stone by stone.
A photocopy of an article titled ‘Ards House’ published in 'The Father Mathew Record' (Feb. 1967), pp 17-24. The article was written by Edward MacIntyre with an introduction by Fr. Benedict Cullen OFM Cap. The article provides a history of Ards House and the former Stewart-Bam estate. The article headings are as follows: The Lifford Inquisition, John (‘half-hanged’) MacNaughton, The builder of Ards House, Road from Letterkenny, Magistrate, Beggard the Estate, Uncle of Lord Castlereagh, Land Acts, Chapel and Choir, and A Greater Landlord. The article also publishes two images of Lady Ena Stewart and the staff of Ards House.
A letter from Dermot MacIntyre to Fr. David Kelleher OFM Cap. referring to the history of the former Stewart-Bam residence in Ards. An extract from the letter reads: 'In regard to Ards and Ards House, I have just found an old notebook of my father’s. He used to jot down bits and pieces on anything to hand and in this old notebook he has an entry dated, Friday, December 30, 1910. He writes: "Was at a dance in Ards House last night given by Sir Pieter Bam. Charlie Coll and I played for them. Bam came in about 9 o’clock. I did not like it all but would rather be in the poorest thatch house in Doe, with the Gaelic sounding round me, than in the midst of it all. Bam does his best to unbend, but it is plainly an effort and he seems to know himself that it won’t be successful. His wife is outrageously proud. She sat all the time like an incarnate goddess and noticed no one. Such pride is a sin against Heaven. You would think the ordinary people were less than dogs to her. Her sister is not one whit better"'. Further extracts from his father’s journal refer to the landlord’s relationships with the workers and tenants on the Ards estate, to the histories of various local churches, to a Feis at Doe Castle in 1910, and to the building of the Lough Swilly railway in Donegal.
