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The fonds consists of the correspondence and papers of Capuchin friars detailing their involvement with participants in the national struggle. The majority of the material dates from 1916-1925 and includes many records highlighting the roles played by Irish Capuchins in ministering to republican leaders and their relations. Of particular interest is a large collection of prison letters including the correspondence of some of the leading figures of the Irish Revolution. The fonds also contains a large collection of republican publicity material, newspapers and miscellaneous items of ephemera and artefacts mostly relating to the military and political campaign organised by nationalists for Irish independence. A smaller collection relating to the repatriation of the bodies of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. and Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. from the United States to Ireland in 1958 is also extant.

Letter from Fr. William OSFC, Franciscan Monastery, Crawley, Sussex, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. enclosing a copy of a blessing from Pope Pius X. It reads: ‘… the Friars Minor Capuchin of the Irish Province, charged by the Bishops of Ireland, to spread the apostolate of Temperance, have had the happy idea of aggregating to such a society even the children, and at the present moment there about two hundred thousand young members who promise to abstain throughout their lives from alcoholic beverages …’.

File of clippings relating to temperance demonstrations, parades and meetings in Dublin, Cork, Wexford, Drogheda, Galway and elsewhere (particularly involving workingmen’s’ associations and trade unions). Some of the articles also refer to the sermons preached by various Capuchin friars and to societal problems associated with intemperance. The file includes the following cuttings:
• Report on a meeting of the Sodality of the Sacred Thirst, St. Mary of the Angels, Church Street, Dublin ('Irish Catholic', 30 May 1899).
• Report on a large demonstration of trade associations in Cork in support of temperance ('Cork Examiner', 15 Oct. 1906).
• Report on a meeting of the Workmen’s Temperance Committee, Father Mathew Hall, Church Street, Dublin ('The Anglo-Celt', 3 November 1906).
• Opening of Aonach na Bealtaine in Father Mathew Hall, Church Street, Dublin, in 1907.
• 'The Peasant and Irish Ireland' (14 Sept. 1907).
• Report of a lecture by Fr. Lawrence Dowling OSFC during a temperance mission in Father Mathew Hall, Queen Street, Cork. ('Cork Examiner', 21 Oct. 1912).
• ‘Public opinion and the housing problem’. A report of a talk on this subject by Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. ('The Catholic Times', 24 Oct. 1913).
• 'The Alliance News and Temperance Reformer / the Organ of the United Kingdom Alliance' (30 Oct. 1913).
• Reports of meetings of the Father Mathew Total Abstinence Association.

Clippings from the 'Irish Catholic', the 'Anglo-Celt', the 'Freeman’s Journal', 'Evening Telegraph' mainly relating to the progress of the Capuchin temperance mission. The file includes reports on the work of the Father Mathew Union, notes on temperance meetings, and lectures and sermons by Fr. Aloysius Travers OSFC and other friars in Father Mathew Hall, Dublin, and in Counties Cavan, Cork and Donegal, and in other locations.