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Letters from Jonathan J. Fitzgerald, 26 Lower Stephen Street, Dublin, to Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Church Street, recommending a play titled ‘Dick Whittington’ for performance by the Boys’ Brigade. He later commends the Brigade for the ‘exquisite programmes’ rendered. Aloysius Johnson, 1 Glenarin Villas, Drumcondra, asks Fr. Paul if he intends holding Brigade troop meetings during the summer months.

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).

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.

Legal documents arising out of efforts to establish title to the properties known as nos. 138-140 Church Street. The properties consisted of three dwelling houses fronting onto Church Street and four houses in Willis’s Court. In 1886, Fr. Nicholas Murphy OSFC and other Capuchin friars agreed to purchase John Coyle’s interest in a lease of the properties dated 28 May 1856 (See CA CS/2/2/3/2). The Capuchins also intimated an interest in purchasing the interest of John Coyle’s landlord, Frederick Kennedy, whose title derived from a lease of the premises for lives renewable forever at the yearly rent of £27 6s 0 (late Irish currency) dated 2 Oct. 1783. It was resolved that Coyle would take a conveyance of the properties from Kennedy (See CA CS/2/2/3/10) and that Coyle would then convey the interests in both leases to the Capuchins. The transfer of the properties was rendered more difficult by the loss of the original lease of 2 Oct. 1783 and by the absence of registered copies of Kennedy’s renewal leases of 28 Dec. 1815 and 13 June 1856 (See CA CS/2/2/3/1). The file includes legal documents generated in order to prove title to the interests held by both Coyle and Kennedy and to facilitate the transfer of the premises to the Capuchin friars. The documents include:
• Copy memorial of a lease (2 Oct. 1783) from George Kiernan, apothecary, and others to Robert Shutter, merchant, of the above-noted properties for lives renewable forever at the yearly rent of £27 6s 0. Copy made at the Registry of Deeds, 10 Mar. 1883.
• Assignment from John Hanrick and Joseph Bolger of the aforementioned premises to John Coyle in consideration of the sum £220. 2 Apr. 1883. With copies of said assignment.
• Abstract of title of Maryanne O'Brien and the trustees of the will of the late James Willis to houses and premises at 138-140 Church Street with four houses at the rear of 139 Church Street in Willis's Court. 20 Apr. 1883.
• Copy will and probate of John Willis, 139 Church Street, Dublin, 4 Feb. 1865. Willis died on 24 Feb. 1865. The copy will was compiled by Frederick Kennedy, 4 Lower Ormond Quay, c.1886.
• Instructions for Philip White, barrister, to advise on title occasioned by the transfer of nos. 138-140 by John Coyle to Fr. Nicholas Murphy and other Capuchin friars. The instructions refer to the intention of the Capuchin friars to demolish the four houses in Willis’s Court and to sell or demise the three houses fronting onto Church Street for a period of twenty years. White wrote: ‘On the whole I would, having regard to the fact that no other premises will suit the querists’ [the Capuchins] purpose, and to the fact that querists have had the risk of being restrained from pulling down the houses thoroughly explained to them and that they are prepared to run the risk, accept the title shown both to Coyle’s and Kennedy’s interests’. 23 Nov. 1886.
• Abstract of title of Frederick Kennedy to premises on Church Street. The abstract commences with a recital of the lease of George Kiernan and others to Robert Joseph Shutter of a ‘messuage, tenement and dwelling house … situate on the west side of Church Street ... containing in the front to the said street from north to south 55 feet, in the rear 22 feet, and in depth from east to west 185 feet … situate in the parish of St. Michan, for lives renewable forever at the yearly rent of £27 6s 0d. The abstract concludes with reference to an assignment of said premises by Henry Smith to Frederick Kennedy (12 Mar. 1883). The document was prepared by Frederick Kennedy in c.Nov. 1886.
• Conveyance and assignment by John Coyle to Fr. Nicholas Murphy OSFC and others of the aforementioned properties. In consideration of £710. 14 Jan. 1887.
• Conveyance by Fr. Nicholas Murphy OSFC and others to Fr. Paul Neary OSFC and others of the aforementioned properties on Church Street to hold in fee simple. (17 Mar. 1888).

Subscription book containing a list of subscribers and guarantors for the fund for paying off the debt incurred on the construction of St. Mary of the Angels. Entries are listed under name, address and amount subscribed. Some entries are listed under the title of: ‘persons visited by Fr. Paul [Neary] and companion for meeting on 27 Feb. 1899’. A newspaper cutting from the 'Freeman’s Journal' [c.8 Mar. 1897] is pasted onto the reverse of the first leaf. The cutting contains a list of contributors towards the aforementioned fund. A monthly mass register record is extant on five pages at the end of the volume. Several manuscript and newspaper cutting inserts have been removed from the volume and placed in CA CS/2/3/7-8.

Letters from Mrs Poer Shee [var. Power Shee], Kilmacthomas, County Waterford, to Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Vicar Provincial, regarding negotiations for the handing over of the Archer Chalice to the Capuchins in Kilkenny. The chalice was originally presented by Walter Archer to the Chapel of the Blessed Mary in the Monastery of St. Francis in Kilkenny in 1606. Fr. Angelus Healy OSFC wrote to Fr. Paul explaining that Miss Poer Shee ‘will hand over the chalice to us in Kilkenny to be held until the Franciscans would get a foundation there, when she would wish it to go there (as being more in accordance with its origins) … . She gives the chalice quite freely and generously’. It is unclear from the correspondence if the agreement handing over the chalice to the Capuchins was ever fulfilled. With a sketch of the chalice. The file also includes a letter from [J.S. Gill], St. Mary’s, Lanark, Scotland, to Fr. Angelus regarding an ‘OFM Chalice’ with a Kilkenny connection dating to 1632 (the letter is dated 20 Feb. 1936), and a clipping from 'The Father Mathew Record', Vol. 39, No. 6 (June 1945) of an article titled ‘The Story of a Chalice’ by Colin Johnston Cobb. The said chalice is inscribed ‘CAPVCINORUM LOCI KILKENIAE’. See also CA KK/8/15.

List of members of the Capuchin community, Church Street. Sixteen priests and four lay brothers are noted. The list includes Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC, Provincial Minister, Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Fr. Augustine Hayden OSFC, Fr. Sebastian O’Brien OSFC, Fr. Aloysius Travers OSFC, Vicar, and. Fr. Angelus Healy OSFC. The debt of the community is stated to be £746 1s 11d. It was noted that this figure represents a decrease on the figure of £1,314 6s 7d referred to in the Provincial Chapter of 1907. The property is listed as ‘church, monastery, garden (about 1 acre)’ with an annual rent of £166 9s 0d. Four lots are held freehold and nine lots under lease. Figures are also supplied in the respect of male and female members of the sodalities attached to St. Mary of the Angels including the Third Order of St. Francis, and the Sacred Thirst and the Scared Heart fraternities.

Letters to Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Provincial Minster, requesting parish missions (and retreats. The file includes letters requesting missions in Belfast, Clare Island (Mayo), Gowna (Cavan), Rathkeale (Limerick), Carrick-on-Suir (Tipperary), Scotstown (Monaghan), Longford, Fermoy (Cork), Clonmel (Tipperary) and Youghal (Cork).

Letters of the Most Rev. William J. Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin, to the Provincial Ministers of the Irish Capuchins (Fr. Matthew O’Connor OSFC, Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC and Fr. Paul Neary OSFC) regarding the establishment and functioning of the Catholic Boys’ Brigade in Dublin. Walsh wrote to Fr. Matthew on 2 May 1895: ‘I should be glad if you could see your way to letting one of your fathers take it in hand. Of course, the rules should be approved in detail so that at any time we could withdraw our connection and our sanction if things were going wrong’. He later averred (27 May 1895) that the ‘organisation ought to be a useful one, if it is well looked after, and good provision for this seems to be made in the Rules’. He later referred (21 June 1895) to an article in the draft rules of Brigade: ‘In par. X, it seems to be left open to Protestants to have a voice in the management. This, of course, would not work in a Catholic organisation for Catholic Boys only’. On 27 Feb. 1900 Walsh wrote: ‘Our religious communities in Dublin are actively engaged in carrying on many good works, works which undoubtedly could not be carried on at all but for them. But I think it is generally understood that as I am exceedingly careful to avoid anything like interference, or bordering on interference, in the affairs of religious bodies, it is far better that I should not be in any connected with their good works’. He later referred to the Capuchin friars’ decision to discontinue work with the Brigade: ‘I observe there is a special point insisted on by the critics of the Boys’ Brigades – that such Brigades are really training schools for the army. On the whole, it may be just as well that your good fathers have got clear of the work’ (15 June 1902). In 1904, Walsh affirmed that he ‘had always remained aloof the organisation’ and claimed that it was not possible for him to interfere ‘in any way [with] the question as to the holding of the trust property’.