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‘Paget Prize Plate Co., Ltd., Watford’ box. The box contains a manuscript note which reads: ‘With Fr. Russell’s compliments. Negatives of Thomastown Castle, County Tipperary. Front and back views. Maynooth, 27 Nov. 1913’. The box contains three glass plate negatives. A front and rear view of Thomastown Castle, the childhood home of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC (1790-1856), and a photographic image of a letter from Fr. Mathew.
Thomastown Castle, near Golden in County Tipperary, was a large country house built by the Mathew family. The earliest house on this site was built by George Mathew and dated to c.1670. The house was enlarged in the Gothic style by Francis Mathew, 2nd Earl of Llandaff, in 1812. The renowned Irish architect, Richard Morrison (1767-1849), redesigned the house incorporating several Gothic features including the ornate towers on the front elevation. Thomastown Castle was the childhood home of Fr. Theobold Mathew OSFC who abandoned a life of privilege to become a Capuchin friar. By the late nineteenth century the fortunes of the Mathew family had declined, and Thomastown Castle had fallen into ruins and the estate was completely abandoned. The ‘Fr. Russell’ referred to in the manuscript note in the file is probably Fr. Mathew Russell, editor of ‘The Irish Monthly’.

The volume contains information in respect of ticket sales and cash derived from various lectures and concert performances at Father Mathew Hall, Church Street. The Hall was regularly frequented by those interested in promoting cultural revivalist activities such as storytelling and festivals of native song and dance. The volume records that Pádraig Pearse gave a lecture in the Hall entitled ‘Education in Ancient Ireland’ on 20 Nov. 1905. On 29 Jan. 1906, the Chevalier Sheeran gave a talk on subject of the ‘alleged atrocities in the Congo Free State’. Each entry is signed by a secretary or officer of the Hall Committee. The signatories include J.W. Whitmore and J. Scanlan.

An Anti-Treaty handbill (black typescript on buff coloured paper), urging Free State soldiers to lay down their arms. It reads: ‘Ireland has one enemy, the infamous English enemy. She has tricked you, kindly, simple lads, as she tricked Irishmen all through the ages of war against her. … The Irish Republic is not dead. A hundred thousand armed men are in Ireland to-day ready to give their lives that it may live. You are killing them as the R.I.C. tried to kill you’.

Face (front): Centre: Man and woman on pedestal on which two children are seated. The adults carry a shield surmounted by a cross, with an angel above. The upper part of the shield has a lamb bearing a banner. The man bears a banner with the words ‘sobriety’. The woman bears a banner with the words ‘Domestic Comfort’. Outer-edge inscription reads: ‘In hoc signo vinces’.
Obverse: Cruciform text of pledge. Outer edge inscription reads: ‘Total Abstinence Society, The Very Rev. T. Mathew, President’. Inner rim inscription reads ‘Founded 10 April 1838’.

One of the medals is engraved on the rim with the inscription ‘P.P. Daly took the Total Abstinence Pledge May 20th 1840’. This medal was found in an envelope with a note by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. The note reads ‘This medal was in the hands of a jeweller in Cork, who had purchased it with the intention of smelting it. Fr. Angelus with permission of the Fr. Provincial bought it for £7 0s 0d the amount the jeweller had paid for it’. With two paper reproductions of the medals.