The receipt reads: ‘Received from Fr. Paul [Neary] OSFC – a small sealed parcel – addressed to Mrs McBride – mother of the late Major McBride. Fred J. Allan, City Hall’. With cover
Letters from Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. to Fr. Paul Neary OFM Cap. reporting on his research on the early Irish Capuchins in continental archives including repositories in Troyes and Charleville, ‘home of the Irish Friars of former days’. Fr. Dominic affirms that ‘further communications would be safer if addressed to c/o Mr. Seán T. O Ceallaigh, Grand Hotel, Place de l’Opera, Paris’ (3 Dec. 1919).
Correspondence of the Most Rev. Richard Alphonsus Sheehan (1845-1915), Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, with Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Provincial Minister, re the resolution of the Irish Catholic hierarchy that ‘the Capuchin Fathers be asked to set apart a certain number of their body for the preaching of a Temperance Crusade in the Country’. A manuscript addition on one copy of the letters reads: ‘Copy of above sent to Fr. Finbarr’s, Cork, at his request (Fr. Albert Bibby, 26 Feb. 1918)’. With copy replies to Bishop Sheehan and the Most Rev. Patrick Foley (1858-1926), Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, and several copies of 'Suggestions for temperance work submitted to the standing committee of Bishops' (January 1906).
Letters to Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Provincial Minster, requesting parish missions and retreats. The file includes letters requesting missions in Waterford, Carlingford (Louth), Clonmel (Tipperary), Carrick-on-Shannon (Leitrim), Rathmines (Dublin). The file also includes requests for missions for Irish emigrant communities in Glasgow and Sunderland.
Letters to Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC, Provincial Minister, Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, and other Capuchin friars, regarding requests for parish missions and retreats. The file includes letters requesting missions in Letterkenny (County Donegal), Dungarvan (Waterford), Newry (Down), Kingwilliamstown (Ballydesmond, Cork), Ballymahon (Longford), Frenchpark (Roscommon), Fermoy (Cork), Drumshanbo (Leitrim), and Abbeylara (Longford).
File relating to the commemoration of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC at the 1902 Cork International Exhibition. Proposed by Edward Fitzgerald, Lord Mayor of Cork, this exhibition and fair showcased many facets of the industrial revival in Ireland. The exhibition included a pavilion devoted to the life and work of Fr. Mathew. The installation of a Father Mathew Pavilion at the exhibition was primarily the result of work done by Fr. Thomas Dowling OSFC (1874-1951). The Exhibition Pavilion was designed by James F. McMullen, architect. The file includes:
• Letters relating to the loan of exhibits, temperance souvenirs, personal effects, paintings and mementos displayed in the Father Mathew Pavilion at the exhibition. Correspondents include Fr. Thomas Dowling OSFC, Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Fr. Mathew’s collateral descendants, J.D. Power, James Nugent, Fr. J. Kane, Parish Priest of Culdaff, Derry, Joshua Baily and William O’Connell.
• Letter from Denis Downey, Dawson Street, Dublin, to Fr. Thomas Dowling OSFC regarding a painting of Fr. Mathew in his possession. Downey adds ‘the late Father Columbus [Maher OSFC] of Church Street with Miss Redmond, the artist, called here and sketched the features for the O’Connell Street Statue, and Father Columbus told me he would purchase the picture as soon as he would be free from debt over the building of the Hall in Church Street’. 24 Jan. 1902.
• Letter from Thomas S. Bowdern, Supreme Council of the Knights of Father Mathew, St. Louis, Missouri, to Fr. Thomas Dowling OSFC thanking him for his kindness in sending ‘souvenirs of the Great Apostle of Temperance’. Bowdern wrote ‘I assure you we appreciate very highly these souvenirs and will hand them down to our successors in the Knights of Father Mathew that in the flight of years they will become even more and more highly prized if such is possible’. Reference is also made to the Knights’ intention to build a statue of Fr. Mathew for the World Fair. ‘As it is the desire to make our statue after the one in Cork I have been asked to write to you to have you inquire whether there is a replica or moulds in existence of the Cork monument’. 24 Feb. 1903.
• Copybook containing notes on the provenance of many of the items displayed in the Pavilion including temperance certificates and medals, Fr. Mathew’s stole, portrait paintings, Fr. Mathew’s piano and a model of the Capuchin chapel on Blackamoor Lane, Cork.
• Caption panels for objects displayed in the exhibition. Includes descriptions and provenance details for commemorative plates, teapots and other artefacts associated with Fr. Mathew. One of the captions reads: ‘The marble chimney-place at present in Refectory was also left in Father Mathew’s house when he left it, and was presented to Community by Mrs Ryan’.
• Visitors’ Book to the Father Mathew Pavilion at the Cork International Exhibition in 1902. The visitors included Cardinal Michael Logue, Archbishop of Armagh. A note on the final page by Fr. Thomas Dowling OSFC reads ‘No. of visitors over 4,500’.
• Copy prints showing Fr. Thomas Dowling OSFC outside the Father Mathew Pavilion at the exhibition in 1902. The other print shows the interior of the Pavilion with various artefacts associated with Fr. Mathew on display.
An image of a group of Capuchin Friars in the garden of St. Mary of the Angels, Capuchin Friary, Church Street, Dublin. One of the friars is identifiable. The friar (second on the left) is Fr. Paul Neary OFM Cap. (1857-1939). An annotation on the cover gives the location of the photograph.
Lease by John Cornwall Brady, Myschall House, County Carlow, to Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Fr. Nicholas Murphy OSFC and Fr. Columbus Maher OSFC, Church Street, Dublin, of a plot of ground on the west side of Church Street ‘formerly called Proper Lane’ for 99 years at the annual rent of £10.
Copy power of attorney obtained from the High Court of Justice (Ireland), Chancery Division. The deed specifies that Caroline Sophia Hunt, 17 Clarinda Park East, Kingstown, County Dublin, spinster, aged 67, has appointed Rev. Henry de Vere Hunt, The Rectory, Ahascragh, County Galway, to act as her attorney, allowing him to execute deeds for certain premises situated on Church Street, Middle Abbey Street, Strand Street and Bachelors’ Walk in Dublin. Specifically, the deed allows Rev. Henry de Vere Hunt to execute a fee farm grant (under the provisions of the Renewable Leasehold Conversion Act, 1849) of premises (probably nos. 138-139) on Church Street. Caroline Sophia Hunt was entitled as tenant for life to rents accruing out of the above-noted premises. With a statement showing fee farm rent from Caroline Sophia Hunt to Fr. William (Paul) Neary OSFC and Fr. Nicholas Murphy OSFC of the aforesaid properties on Church Street.
Lease of Henry William Parnell, 3rd Baron Congleton, and Colonel Henry Parnell, to Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Fr. Nicholas Murphy OSFC and Fr. Columbus Maher OSFC of a plot of ground extending from Bow Street to Church Street for 300 years at the yearly rent of £30. The deed has a coloured map showing the property referred to in the lease.