The subseries comprises a large collection of bound volumes containing photographic material, newspaper and magazine clippings, original historical records and ephemera compiled by Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap., the editor of ‘The Capuchin Annual’. The content of the volumes is extremely varied and, in many instances, includes rare original records reflecting Moynihan’s interest in Irish history, and particularly the revolutionary period. Some of the material complements content published in ‘The Capuchin Annual’ with several of the original photographs reproduced in various editions of the periodical. Other content (especially the clippings) is suggestive of Moynihan’s eclectic interest in Irish church history, Franciscan history, antiquities, literature, Gaelic culture, historiography, and the contemporary political and economic situation in Ireland especially during the Second World War.
The sub-series contains records relating to legal issues arising out of the management of Father Mathew Hall, Church Street, Dublin. The records specifically relate to the transfer of ownership of the Hall from elected trustees of the temperance sodality to the Capuchin Franciscan Order. This process was complicated by the legal guarantees required to ‘ensure that the purpose for which the property was acquired, and the Hall originally built would be maintained’. Other issues include negotiations with the representatives of the Merchant Tailors’ School, the original owners of the ground at 131-5 Church Street upon which the Hall was built and with the tenants of cottages on Bow Street and Nicholas Avenue who rented their properties from the Hall trustees.
The sub-series contains a collection of original Total Abstinence Society pledge cards. Most of the cards are signed by the pledge-taker and by Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC. The cards were decorated with various temperance symbols and vignettes. An illustration on one side of the cards depicted a scene warning of the dangers of intemperance – a man driven by alcohol to beat his wife. Another illustration showed a scene of temperance – a happy family reading together by the hearth. The cards are listed in chronological order.
