This section includes deeds, leases and other legal documents relating to the title to three houses fronting onto Church Street (nos. 138-140) which subsequently became part of the present-day Capuchin Friary. It was evident that Fr. Nicholas Murphy OSFC (1849-1923) and the other Capuchins friars were eager to purchase these derelict properties with the intention of ‘pulling down the houses’ in order to expand the Friary. In 1886, Fr. Nicholas succeeded in acquiring these plots which later became part of the Friary garden. By 1914, a solicitor reported that all traces of the original buildings and houses had completely disappeared.
This section includes deeds, leases and other legal documents relating to the acquisition of properties and plots of ground at 47-50 North King Street. In 1861, Fr. Lawrence Gallerani OSFC was appointed Capuchin Commissary General in Ireland. He immediately set about the task of building a new Capuchin Friary and Church in Dublin. When he could not procure any ground near the existing chapel on Church Street (except on a short lease of thirty years), he begun to look for another site, and found one at 47-50 North King Street. With the permission of the Most Rev. Paul Cullen (1803-1878), Archbishop of Dublin, he set about acquiring these sites. First, he got possession of nos. 49 and 50 and the two houses were fitted up as a temporary friary pending the erection of new buildings. On 23 July 1862, the Capuchin community left their residence at 18 Queen Street and took up residence in North King Street. Later that year, Fr. Gallerani obtained possession of two more houses (nos. 47-8), and on the advice of the Archbishop, began to build a friary before commencing work on a new church. Partly as a result of the opposition of the parish clergy of St. Michan’s, the Capuchins went no further on North King Street than building the friary which they inhabited for several years. The North King Street properties were sold by the Capuchins in 1883, when the present-day Friary was built on Church Street.
This section includes deeds, leases and other documents relating to title to 133-134 Church Street and a yard at the rear of the said properties extending out onto 27 Bow Street. These plots are now partly occupied by the present-day Father Mathew Hall. Many of the documents relate to Fr. Nicholas Murphy’s efforts to secure these properties which enabled the extension of the Church Street Hall. A long-term lease of the properties was obtained in 1886 and the outright purchase of the plot was secured in 1963.
This section includes deeds, leases and other related legal documents relating to title for 141 Church Street and properties at the rear thereof known as 1-3 Thunder’s Court. By the late 1880s, St. Mary of the Angels and the adjoining Capuchin Friary had been built, but the lack of any extra ground, apart from the sites on which these buildings stood, remained a great inconvenience. As part of an extension plan, a lease of the aforementioned properties was secured in 1888. This section also includes a lease of a property known as no. 151 Church Street dated 7 Sept. 1920.
This section includes deeds, leases and legal documents relating to title to properties on Bow Street now part of the present-day Capuchin Friary on Church Street. The deeds mainly refer to nos. 20-23 Bow Street and to properties held from Jameson & Sons, distillers. The section also includes correspondence from John Jameson regarding rights of passage from Church Street to Bow Street.
This section includes deeds, leases and other legal documents relating to the title of properties on Carter’s Lane which was located off Bow Street. The documents mostly relate to properties and a dairy yard situated on Carter’s Lane between Bow Street and Smithfield Market. The section also includes the correspondence of Fr. Nicholas Murphy OSFC with the Corporation of Dublin regarding a scheme for the improvement of the area around Carter’s Lane.
This section includes deeds relating to title of properties on North Brunswick Street. The deeds probably relate to a proposal of Fr. Lawrence Gallerani OSFC to build a new Capuchin Church on North Brunswick Street.
This section includes documents relating the refurbishment of Church and Friary of St. Mary of the Angels which took place from 1970-5. The church interior was extensively renovated during the guardianship of Fr. Fidelis O’Connell OFM Cap. to comply with the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-5). Externally, the Gothic character of St. Mary of the Angels was largely preserved and most of the side altars between the main body of the Church and the Sacred Heart Chapel were retained as shrines.
