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The collection comprises over 300 original glass plate negatives and lantern slides. Prior to the invention of cellulose nitrate film in 1903, photographic emulsions were made on glass supports. These glass supports are typically referred to as glass plate negatives. The term ‘glass plate negative’ refers to two separate formats: the collodion wet plate negative and the gelatin dry plate. Both formats consist of a light sensitive emulsion that is fixed to the glass plate base with a binder. This form of photographic process largely faded from the consumer market in the early years of the twentieth century, as more convenient and less fragile films were introduced. Despite the impracticalities of the medium, glass negative plates were generally considered superior to cellulose nitrate film for high-quality imaging because they were extremely stable and less likely to bend or distort.

The collection also includes several lantern slides. Lantern slides were constructed from a base piece of glass, with the emulsion (carrying the photo or print) on it, then a matte over that, and then a top piece of cover glass. They were then taped all the way around to keep the pieces together and to keep dust out. Occasionally, colour was added by hand, tinting the images (these lantern slides were created before the invention of colour film). The slides were then projected onto a screen using a bespoke lantern slide projector. Lantern glass slides were used by some public speakers until the mid-twentieth century, when they were eclipsed by more economical and practical 35mm colour slides popularised by Kodachrome. Finally, the collection also includes some original glass stereo plates. Stereo cameras used a single glass plate negative to capture images. Prints from these negatives were intended to be looked at with a special viewer called a stereoscope, which created a rudimentary three-dimensional image.

Provenance and Collection Content

Precise information on the provenance of the collection is lacking. The plates were retrieved from a worn leather suitcase bearing the initials ‘F.A.’ which almost certainly refers to Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. (1875-1953). Although Fr. Angelus never considered himself an academic historian, he researched assiduously and transcribed many original documents relating to the history of the Irish Capuchins. His ‘Pages from the Story of the Irish Capuchins’ was published in 1915 to mark the tercentenary of the arrival of the first Capuchin friar in Ireland. It is highly likely that Fr. Angelus was responsible for assembling this glass plate photographic collection and that many of the lantern slides were created specifically for his use.

The image content of the glass plate collection is eclectic and varied. Only a relatively small number of the images are dated but it can be inferred that most of the photographs date to the first or second decade of the twentieth century. Many of the plates show images of scenes around the Capuchin Friary in Rochestown in County Cork. The Capuchins established a community in Rochestown, situated about five miles from Cork city, in 1873. The Irish friars had founded a Seraphic School in 1884 with the primary aim of training young religious. This school originally operated along the lines of a novitiate for students who aspired to join the Capuchin Franciscan Order. In 1887, this school was transferred from Kilkenny to Rochestown. The collection includes many images of novice friars and students attached to the Rochestown house. In addition to photographs of the friary itself, local landmarks, buildings, and scenic locations in the environs of Rochestown feature prominently in some of the images. Several photographs showing other Irish Capuchin houses and foundations such as the Church of St. Francis in Kilkenny are also extant in the collection. The collection also includes some rare images of the Reek Sunday pilgrimage to the summit of Croagh Patrick in County Mayo (CA-PH-1-49-55). The 764-metre-high mountain is traditionally climbed by pilgrims on the last Sunday in July. These images were likely assembled by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap., who was known as the ‘Guardian of the Reek’ in honour of his long association with the pilgrimage. His association with Croagh Patrick lasted from 1906 to 1949, during which he climbed the mountain forty-two times missing only two years, in 1919 due to a railway strike, and in 1922 due to the Civil War.

A seemingly separate series of lantern slides relating to the life and career of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC (1790-1856), a famed nineteenth century temperance campaigner and Capuchin friar, were also deposited in the collection. It is very probable that these slides were used as illustrative aids by the Capuchins for public talks and auditorium lectures on Fr. Mathew’s campaign against intoxicating liquor. Temperance activity was revived in 1905 when the Irish Catholic hierarchy invited the Capuchins to preach a National Crusade. This revival initially elicited widespread public enthusiasm and by 1912 the Capuchins had administered over a million pledges throughout the country. The lanterns slides were, in all probability, used in this campaign. Finally, the collection also includes images of seventeenth century manuscripts and photographs of other original records pertaining to the lives and ministries of several early Irish Capuchins. These were probably acquired by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. and Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. (1876-1965), another prominent Irish Capuchin historian, for research purposes.

Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC (1790-1856)

Theobald Mathew was born at Thomastown Castle near the village of Golden in County Tipperary on 10 October 1790. The Mathews were an old landed family with both Catholic and Protestant branches. Francis Mathew (1738-1806) was the owner of Thomastown Castle. He was created Viscount Landaff in 1793, and then Earl Landaff in 1797 (the title derived from the place in Wales from which the family had come to Ireland in the seventeenth century. The title was sometimes referred to as the Earldom of Llandaff since that is the more common Welsh spelling but it is Earl Landaff in the Peerage of Ireland. The Mathews of Thomastown held this title from 1797 to 1833). In the 1760s, Francis Mathew had adopted his orphaned cousin, James Mathew, Theobald’s father. On reaching adulthood, James was appointed the agent for the Mathew estate. Unlike many of the Mathews, James remained a Catholic throughout his life. His wife, Anne Whyte, was also a Catholic. They had twelve children, the fourth of whom was Theobald. The young Theobald Mathew had a privileged childhood, enjoying favoured treatment from his Protestant relation, Lady Elizabeth Mathew, the daughter of Francis Mathew. Lady Elizabeth knew and approved of Theobald’s priestly ambitions, and in 1800 she provided the money to pay for his education at St. Canice’s, a Catholic boarding school in Kilkenny. In September 1807, Theobald enrolled at St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, for seminary training. However, his plans were upset when in his first year he was forced to leave Maynooth in order to avoid being expelled for holding what appears to have been a drunken party for his fellow students. He was subsequently accepted by the Capuchin Franciscan Order as a novice and he made his way to Church Street in Dublin to be trained. The Capuchins, in common with many of the religious orders in Ireland, were weak at this time and were thus extremely anxious for new recruits.

On 3 April 1813 Mathew was ordained a deacon. A year later he was ordained a priest by the Most Rev. Daniel Murray (1768-1852), later Archbishop of Dublin. After a brief sojourn in Kilkenny, Fr. Mathew moved back to Cork where he came under the influence of Fr. Daniel Donovan OSFC (d. 14 Jan. 1821) who was elected Provincial Minister of the Irish Capuchins in 1816. Fr. Mathew devoted a good deal of his time to practical charitable enterprises, establishing schools for poor and orphaned children. In these schools the children were taught household skills in addition to elementary subjects. In 1821, Fr. Donovan died and Fr. Mathew was elected his successor as Provincial Minister. He would continue to hold this position until 1851. In 1832, he broke ground for an elaborate, Gothic-style Capuchin church in Cork (subsequently called The Church of the Most Holy Trinity), on Charlotte Quay (later renamed Father Mathew Quay). Due to a lack of funds the church would remain unfinished in Fr. Mathew’s lifetime. It was not until 1890 that the spire and façade were added. Nevertheless, Fr. Mathew gained an excellent reputation in the local community for his tireless endeavours in support of the poor of Cork. He was also noted for his exceptional spirit of ecumenism. He was on friendly terms with a number of leading Protestants and Quakers in the city. Fr. Mathew joined the total abstinence movement in Cork in April 1838. The Cork Total Abstinence Society was established with the avowed aim of encouraging people to make one enduring act of will which would keep them sober for life. This act of will was enshrined in the pledge to abstain from the taking of intoxicating liquor.

From the very beginning Fr. Mathew’s endeavours in the cause of temperance gained striking success. Under his leadership, teetotalism drew a large number of adherents in Cork and spread throughout Munster and eventually throughout Ireland. The Society’s ranks quickly grew, and within three months, Fr. Mathew had enrolled 25,000 new members in Cork alone. In five months, the number had increased to 130,000. He travelled across Ireland, convincing thousands more to pledge teetotalism. In August 1842, he began traveling internationally, first to Scotland, then England. At its height, just before the outbreak of the famine in 1845, Fr. Mathew’s temperance movement had enrolled three million people, or more than half of the adult population of Ireland. By the mid-1840s he was frequently travelling to Britain with equally dramatic results. The leading nationalist politician, Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847), described the temperance movement as Fr. Mathew’s ‘mighty moral crusade’. In 1847, the priests of the diocese of Cork selected him to be their bishop. However, there was strong opposition from members of the hierarchy. It was held against him that the he had accepted a pension from the Government. One long-standing critic among the bishops described him as ‘the hired tool of a heretical government’. This reflected the long-standing determination of the Catholic Church in Ireland not to accept state funding and the interference that would come in its train. Fr. Mathew’s financial mismanagement (he was known to be bountiful and generous to the point of extravagance), liberal Catholicism and Protestant associations also told against him. The Pope acceded to the almost unanimous advice of the Irish hierarchy that Fr. Mathew should not be appointed to the bishopric. Nevertheless, his standing as a popular figure remained undiminished. In July 1849, he visited the United States where he was greeted with enthusiastic acclaim. In Washington, the Congress unanimously admitted to him to a seat on the floor of the House; he was the first non-American after the Marquis de Lafayette to be so honoured. Rallies and demonstrations were held across the country to honour Ireland’s renowned ‘Apostle of Temperance’.

Despite this personal adulation, it was clear that Fr. Mathew’s movement had reached its zenith. From the late 1840s the movement began to decline almost dramatically as it had risen. His health started to fail (he had suffered a stroke in 1848) and crippling debts began to accumulate, making it increasingly difficult to continue the temperance crusade. The onset of the famine, brought about by the failure of the potato crop in 1845, dealt a grievous blow to the movement; thousands of Fr. Mathew’s followers died or emigrated in those years. Many of those who remained in Ireland had to contend with more pressing concerns than the maintenance of their pledge to abstain from alcohol. In late 1853, despite declining health, Fr. Mathew ventured to Limerick where he administered the pledge in what was his last appearance at a public meeting. In October 1854, on medical advice, he travelled to Madeira but his health continued to deteriorate. In the absence of its charismatic leader the temperance movement continued to weaken. He suffered a severe stroke in late 1856 and died in Queenstown (later Cobh), County Cork, on 8 December 1856. He was 66 years old. He was buried in St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Cork, which he had established twenty-six years earlier.

Collection Content

The surviving original correspondence of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC held in the Irish Capuchin Archives has been catalogued and is listed elsewhere (IE CA FM-COR). The majority of the collection listed here is comprised of research material relating to Fr. Mathew’s life and temperance crusade. In the late nineteenth century, Ireland experienced temperance revivals which had the effect of renewing popular interest in the total abstinence campaign led by Fr. Mathew in the 1840s and 1850s. Widespread public interest in his legacy remained undiminished, and his life continued to be the subject of popular admiration. The collection includes published historical works, biographical research and other copy source material relating to the ‘Apostle of Temperance’. The collection comprises compilations of archival sources and research notes compiled by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. (1876-1965), Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. (1875-1953), and Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap. (1915-1997), Capuchin friars who undertook extensive research into Fr. Mathew’s life and ministry.

The fonds also contains correspondence, publications, posters, circulars, newspaper cuttings and ephemera relating to various commemorations of Fr. Mathew from the nineteenth century onward. In 1864, John Francis Maguire MP (1815-1872), Fr. Mathew’s friend and first biographer, organised the erection of a statue of him on St. Patrick’s Street in Cork sculpted by John Henry Foley (1818-1874). As part of an exhibition held in Philadelphia in 1876 to mark the centenary of American Independence, the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America erected a statue of Fr. Mathew in Fairmont Park. His statue stood alongside three Irish-American Catholics who had played a significant role in the American Revolution, Bishop John Carroll SJ, Charles Carroll and John Barry. In 1890, to mark the centenary of Fr. Mathew’s birth, a committee with a large Protestant membership came together to erect a statue in Dublin. There were generous donations from both England and Ireland and from Irish emigrant communities in North America. The statue, by the Irish-born artist Mary Redmond (1863-1930), was unveiled on Sackville (later O’Connell) Street in February 1893. The statue depicted Fr. Mathew in a Capuchin habit, an attire he never wore in life. In 1938, as part of the celebrations of the centenary of the foundation of the Cork Total Abstinence Society, the Most Rev. David Mathew (1902-1975), the Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, who was a great-grandnephew of Fr. Mathew, had a statute erected near his birthplace of Thomastown Castle. Similar nationwide commemorative events were held in 1956 to mark the centenary of Mathew's death. More low-key commemorations were held in 1988 (150th anniversary of the inauguration of the temperance campaign), 1990 (bi-centenary of Fr. Mathew’s death), and in 2006 (150th anniversary of his death). The collection includes correspondence, newspaper cuttings, publicity material, photographs and memorabilia concerning the organisation and celebration of these commemorative occasions.

The total abstinence movement in the Catholic Church in England was revived by Cardinal Henry Manning (1804-1892) who in 1872 founded the League of the Cross. In the same year the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America was established. In 1887, one of its leaders, Bishop John Ireland of Saint Paul, Minnesota (1838-1918), who, as a young man in his native Kilkenny had taken the pledge from Fr. Mathew, obtained approval from Pope Leo XIII for the organisation of a total abstinence movement. In Ireland, some Capuchin friars sought to renew the campaign against intemperance. In 1880, Fr. Albert Mitchell OSFC (1831-1893) established a sodality in Dublin under the title of the ‘Temperance Society of the Sacred Thirst of Our Lord Jesus Christ’. A meeting place for the sodality was secured with the opening of Father Mathew Centennial Memorial Hall on Church Street in January 1891. A hall for a similar temperance sodality and religious confraternity was opened by the Capuchins in Cork in 1907. Temperance activity received a major boost in 1905 when the Irish hierarchy invited the Capuchins to preach a National Crusade. The crusade initially garnered widespread public enthusiasm and by 1912 the Capuchins had administered over a million pledges throughout the country.

By this point the Capuchins were not alone in tackling the scourge of intemperance in Ireland. Fr. James Cullen SJ (1841-1921) founded the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association (PTAA) in Dublin in December 1898. Although the PTAA looked to Fr. Mathew’s earlier temperance campaign for inspiration, Fr. Cullen’s movement displayed some marked differences. In his speeches, Fr. Cullen asserted that temperance among the Irish would pave the way for independence from Britain. The PTAA was not primarily directed at excessive drinkers but at devout Catholics, who were to make what was described as a heroic sacrifice to atone for the sins of intemperance. This movement was essentially devotional and firmly rooted within the Catholic Church. An essential component of the Association was devotion to the Sacred Heart with a focus on the spiritual element in the work of the PTAA. Many of the twentieth-century commemorations of Fr. Mathew were organised by the PTAA as part of the promotion of their cause. Fr. Cullen’s pioneers remained a vital force in Ireland until the 1980s, when they found themselves unable to adapt to the dramatic political, cultural, and religious changes taking hold in an increasingly secular Ireland. The collection comprises much material relating to the promotion of temperance issues by organisations such as the PTAA including newsletters, publications, publicity and commemorative material (much of which focused on Fr. Mathew’s legacy), and memorabilia. Finally, the subfonds includes a highly significant collection of artefacts such as original temperance society medals, pledge cards, prints, posters, photographs, temperance memorabilia, manuals, church plate, ephemera and other items and relics associated with Fr. Mathew and his temperance movement from the 1830s to the 1850s. These items were collected by various Capuchin friars in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with a view to exhibiting them for devotional and historical purposes.

Various histories of the Order both nationally and internationally.

This collection contains material relating to the Vincentian community in the Parish of Our Lady’s Queen of the Universe, Hereford, United Kingdom. Items include: correspondence, Visitation Reports, House Council Minutes, Architects Reports, newspaper cuttings, printed articles, photographs.

The fonds consists of the correspondence and papers of Capuchin friars detailing their involvement with participants in the national struggle. The majority of the material dates from 1916-1925 and includes many records highlighting the roles played by Irish Capuchins in ministering to republican leaders and their relations. Of particular interest is a large collection of prison letters including the correspondence of some of the leading figures of the Irish Revolution. The fonds also contains a large collection of republican publicity material, newspapers and miscellaneous items of ephemera and artefacts mostly relating to the military and political campaign organised by nationalists for Irish independence. A smaller collection relating to the repatriation of the bodies of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. and Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. from the United States to Ireland in 1958 is also extant.

The collection relates to the Vincentian work done in All Hallows College (AHC) from 1892, when the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians) took over the administration of the college, to 2016 when the Vincentians gave up the running of AHC. Contains financial, spiritual and architectural reports and considerations of the college as run by the Vincentians.

The Capuchin presence in Kilkenny can be traced to 1643 when two friars, Fathers Peter Nugent OSFC and Thomas Tuite OSFC, came to the town after their residence in Mullingar was destroyed by fire. Following their arrival in Kilkenny they stayed in a rented house near St. Canice’s Cathedral. The Bishop of Ossory, the Most Rev. David Rothe (1573-1650), was favourably disposed to the friars and he subsequently gave them charge of one of the chapels in the cathedral. On 8 March 1648 Bishop Rothe granted the Capuchins a canonical foundation with official rights and privileges to minister in the diocese. Though the Capuchins have had a long association with Walkin Street (later Friary Street) in Kilkenny, it is clear that this was not the location of their original foundation. There are references to at least three other locations where they had previously ministered. It is known that Fr. Sebastian Butler OSFC (d. July 1647) secured a residence and a chapel but its exact location has not been established. In about 1650, the Capuchin community consisted of Fr. Barnaby Barnewall OSFC (d. 1663), Fr. Anthony Nugent OSFC, Fr. Christopher Kearney OSFC (d. 1656), Fr. Gregory Mulchonry OSFC, Fr. Fiacre Tobin OSFC (d. 1656) and Br. John Verdon OSFC. Following the upheavals of the Cromwellian conquest, the Capuchins secured a plot of ground on St. Michael’s Lane, adjoining St. John’s Abbey (a former Augustinian Priory), where they established a hospice and an oratory in which ‘they preached the office of missionaries’.

In 1678 the Capuchins had a community of three in the city. Their friary and chapel continued to be situated near St. John’s Abbey. Fr. Nicholas Cornan OSFC was among the regular clergy of Kilkenny mentioned in the will of Bishop James Phelan in 1693. The Capuchin house adjoining St. John’s Abbey was suppressed in 1697 after the passage of the Act of Banishment which aimed to expel ‘all Regulars of the Popish Clergy out of this Kingdom’. Some of the dispersed friars from St. Michael’s Lane later moved to an alms house on Walkin Street. This alms house or ‘Poor House Chapel’ as it came to be known, was founded by Fr. James Tobin OSFC who was a native of Leyrath (or Lyrath) in County Kilkenny. At the rear of the alms house, a small chapel was built which the Capuchins served. The site of ‘Father Tobin’s Poor House’ is covered by the right wing of the present-day Friary, which runs at right angles to Friary (formerly Walkin) Street, near Pennyfeather Lane. Later, Fathers Thomas Murphy OSFC (c.1744-1817) and William Berry OSFC (c.1742-1822) obtained a small plot of ground beside the alms house on which they built a small church and community residence. When the Capuchins obtained this site the endowment of the alms house was transferred to the houses on the opposite side of Walkin Street. This residence was used by the Capuchins until 1848 when Fr. Peter Joseph Mulligan OSFC (1793-1853) built the present-day Friary Church of St. Francis. Fr. Mulligan, who was the guardian or local superior of the Capuchin community, also obtained a lease of a small plot of ground which enabled him to build an entrance to the church directly onto Walkin Street.

The new church was built over the existing alms house chapel ensuring that there was no interruption to day-to-day religious services. The alms house chapel occupied a portion of the area inside the main arches of the present-day Church of St. Francis. The architects for the new church were Messrs Wright and O’Toole. Additional adornment for the new building was secured in the form of a belfry with two bells (still in use), one of which Fr. Mulligan styled ‘Shiel’, and the other ‘O’Connell’, in honour of two of the great champions of Catholic Emancipation in the first half of the nineteenth century. A large cross (the first to be erected over a Catholic place of worship in Kilkenny since the Reformation) was also installed. Fr. Mulligan died in 1853, leaving Fr. Laurence O’Flynn OSFC (1807-1863) as the only Capuchin friar in Kilkenny until 1855 when Fr. Edward Tommins OSFC (1812-1889) arrived. Fr. Tommins secured pillars, pediments and altar cornices from the old cathedral of St. Mary’s and installed them in the Church of St. Francis when the new Cathedral was being built in the 1850s. On 23 September 1868 a new altar piece was erected, executed by Guardiocini, a celebrated Italian painter. In October 1873 a statue of the Sacred Heart by J. O’Reilly of Cork was installed in the sanctuary. An extension of the friary building was completed towards the end of the nineteenth century. On 15 December 1873 the foundation stone was laid for a new friary residence running parallel to Walkin Street. A novitiate for the Capuchin Order in Ireland was also opened in Kilkenny in 1875. A few years later, in 1884, a Seraphic School was established. In 1889 a lease was obtained for a small garden adjoining the friary and in July 1896 the site of the old alms house was obtained from the Most Rev. Abraham Brownrigg (1836-1928), Bishop of Ossory (see CA KK/2/1/1/1/15). This allowed for the building of an additional wing to the friary in 1897. This new wing was located at right angles to Walkin Street and extended to Pennyfeather Lane, completely covering the site of the earlier Poor House (constructed by Fr. James Tobin) and Fr. Mulligan’s later building. Side chapels were added to the church in 1938. The designs for these chapels were completed by John Joseph Robinson & Richard Cyril Keeffe, architects, and the builders were Messrs W.K. Cleere & Son of Kilkenny. The tercentenary of the arrival of the Capuchins in Kilkenny was marked in 1948 with elaborate religious and civic ceremonies. A Friary Hall (St. Francis Hall) was opened in April 1956 and a new novitiate building, designed by Sylvester Bourke (1928-2009), a local architect, was constructed in the early 1960s.

Collection Content

The fonds consists of records relating to the Capuchin community in Kilkenny City and in particular to the foundation known as the Church of St. Francis situated on Friary Street (formerly Walkin Street). The fonds includes legal records relating to the acquisition, transfer and disposal of church property (such as deeds of title, mortgages and bills of sale), financial records, and material relating to individual members of the Capuchin community in Kilkenny. The collection includes a large number of administrative and community files, financial statements and books of account relating to building construction and structural alterations, correspondence, plans, publicity material, photographs, library books and miscellaneous items of commemorative ephemera connected with Capuchin ministries and apostolates in Kilkenny. The collection also includes unpublished historical writings and biographical material relating to notable members of the Capuchin Order who ministered in Kilkenny. The fonds also includes records relating to the lay religious sodality known as the Third Order of St. Francis (now the Secular Franciscan Order) attached to the Capuchin Church in the city.

The Capuchin Franciscans have worked in Ireland since the seventeenth century. From the middle of the nineteenth century the Irish Capuchins manifested a missionary zeal which took them from home to the furthest corners of the globe. Irish friars have undertaken overseas missions in the United States, Africa, New Zealand, and South Korea. Well over one hundred Irish Capuchins have ministered in Africa since the first friar arrived in South Africa in 1929, and in Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia) in 1931.

South Africa

In 1927 the Vicar Apostolic of Cape Province in South Africa, the Most Rev. Bernard O’Riley (1868-1956), invited the Irish Capuchins to open a mission. The friars responded positively to this request and in 1929 Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap. (1876-1958), Fr. Alban Cullen OFM Cap. (1902-1957) and Fr. Declan McFadden OFM Cap. (1901-1979) began missionary work in the Cape Flats on the outskirts of Cape Town. From the outset, the friars ministered among the marginalized black and ‘coloured’ (or mixed-race) populations of the area. Two foundational parishes were initially assigned to the Capuchins at Athlone (St. Mary of the Angels) and at Parow (Immaculate Conception). Parow is located eleven miles from the centre of Cape Town. The parish included the townships of Elsies River and Vasco located in the greater Cape Town municipality. The racial composition of Parow was mixed with both white and ‘coloured’ inhabitants. Athlone is located six miles from Parow and about twelve miles from Cape Town and has a predominately mixed-race population. In 1935 the Athlone foundation expanded to incorporate ministries at other locations including Langa and the Welcome Estate. Additional ministries were commenced in Matroosfontein (1933), Tiger Valley (1951), Belgravia (1954), Bridgetown (1967) and Elsies River (1979). All these parishes are situated in the Archdiocese of Cape Town. Within five years of arriving in South Africa, the Capuchins had built churches at Athlone and at Parow. Presbyteries, schools, and training colleges followed.

Of necessity, the Capuchins in Cape Town worked chiefly as parish priests offering public masses, attending sick calls, and promoting the cause of temperance. Other duties included evangelisation, organising lay religious sodalities, ministry to coverts, pre-nuptial courses, retreats, prison ministry, and promoting vocations and formation work for new friars. Despite the violent political unrest provoked by the system of racial discrimination known as apartheid, the Irish friars continued to labour among the poorest and most segregated in South African society. The work of the Capuchins with the ‘coloured’ population of Cape Flats and in the townships continued despite the frequent and fierce repression of the white minority government. In the seven parishes served by the Capuchins in South Africa in the 1980s, five were in the so-called ‘coloured’ areas, one in the African area, and one which straddled a racially mixed district. Education was a key element of missionary work within the Capuchin parishes and schools were established with the assistance of the Holy Cross Sisters, the Christian Brothers, and other religious congregations. The Capuchin Custody of South Africa remains under the jurisdiction of the Irish Capuchin Province and Irish friars continue to work in a variety of religious and social ministries in the country alongside missionary friars from Tanzania and India.

Zambia

In 1930 another field of missionary activity was offered to the Irish Capuchins. They were invited into vast area of 168,000 km2, comprising the Livingstone district and Barotseland, the western province of what was then called Northern Rhodesia (now the Republic of Zambia). Before 1931 there was no resident priest in the whole area from Livingstone to the Angolan border in the north. Prior to the arrival of the Irish Capuchins in 1931, the Barotseland mission was nominally under the control of the Prefect Apostolic of Broken Hill (now Kabwe), a town nearly four hundred miles north of Livingstone. The territory was effectively virgin-soil for Catholic missionary work. The only previous attempt at evangelization in Barotseland was unsuccessful. In 1881, the Jesuits had entered the territory and received permission from the local Paramount Chief but the presence of the Protestant missionary association, the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society ('Société des missions évangéliques de Paris'), disrupted their work in the district.

In 1931 three Irish Capuchins arrived in Livingstone with the intention of opening a new mission. Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap. set about constructing a friary in Livingstone. Fr. Declan McFadden OFM Cap. and Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap. (1905-1972) arrived in October 1931, with Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap. (1902-1979) and Fr. Seraphin Nesdale OFM Cap. coming in February 1932. Soon afterwards, the Capuchins began exploring the interior of Barotseland establishing a centre at Loanja, about one hundred and fifty kilometres north of Livingstone. The missionaries encountered many difficulties. There were no roads, and the friars travelled on foot or in canoes and on barges on the Zambezi River. Lions, leopards, and crocodiles posed some threat but more harmful to health were the smaller creatures such as tsetse flies and mosquitoes which carried a significant risk of malaria and other diseases. The friars also had to acquire knowledge of the local language of Lozi. Within two months of arriving at Loanja in 1932, the friars had built houses for themselves and their workers as well as a church and a school. These were simple structures with the walls supported by poles set into the ground interwoven with wattles and plastered with mud. The roofs were thatched. However, Loanja proved to be less than an ideal location as it was situated in a desert area and with a widely dispersed and small population. In 1936 the friars moved to Sichili. In the meantime, the friars worked diligently on acquiring an understanding of the local language and customs. The catechism was translated and printed in 1933 and this was followed by a translation of the New Testament. The influence of the Protestant missionary groups in the area continued to be a serious impediment as they laid to claim to vast swathes of the territory as their ‘sphere of influence’ to the definite exclusion of Catholic missionaries. Despite these difficulties, the Irish friars succeeded in opening a new mission station at Lukulu in December 1935.

In May 1936 Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap. was appointed the first Prefect Apostolic of Victoria Falls. Under his guidance, the provision of education and medical services became spearheads of mission development as new stations were opened at Mankoya (1938), Sihole (1943) and Katima Mulilo (1944) located in the Caprivi Strip in what was then South West Africa (now Namibia), and later at Malengwa (1947). A total of twenty-one Capuchin missions were established throughout Barotseland. Each friary, besides being a residence for the missionaries, acted as a base for outreach for evangelization and development in the surrounding districts. In March 1950 the Prefecture was raised to be the Vicariate Apostolic of Livingstone with Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap. consecrated as Vicar Apostolic in September 1950. In August 1959 the mission territory of the Vicariate of Livingstone was erected into the Diocese of Livingstone and the Most Rev. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap. was installed as Bishop. He remained Bishop of Livingstone until the nomination of Monsignor Adrian Mung’andu (c.1920-2007) in 1974.

Additional mission stations were opened throughout the 1960s. Churches were built in each Boma or administrative centre, in Nalionwa (1960), Senanga (1966), Mongu (1966), Sesheke (1967) and at St. Conrad’s Friary in the capital, Lusaka. At this time the decolonization of Africa was continuing apace, and Zambia achieved independence from British rule in October 1964. Support for the Irish missionaries came in 1965 with the arrival of American friars from the New Jersey Capuchin Province. They were allocated the northern section of the Livingstone Diocese and they opened a new mission station at Kambompo (1966). This built upon the work of other religious congregations primarily in the fields of education and health care. The Holy Cross Sisters had worked in the country since 1936. This congregation was founded by a Swiss Capuchin priest, and the sisters devoted themselves to teaching and to the care of the sick (especially leprosy victims). An orphanage was opened in Sichili and later the sisters established secondary schools in Lukulu and in Malengwa. An emphasis was placed on the education of women and a female teacher-training college was also opened by the Holy Cross Sisters. The Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood arrived in 1946 and established a hospital in Kasaba. From the late 1940s, they worked alongside the Irish friars in running hospitals in Mangango, Sesheke and Chinyingi. In 1967 the Irish Christian Brothers took over the running of secondary schools in Katongo and in Livingstone. Many lay people (from Ireland and elsewhere) came to Zambia to work as teachers, nurses, doctors and development workers at the Capuchin mission stations.

The rapid progress in the building of schools, hospitals and health-care centres in these years was remarkable, since the colonial government had made little or no provision for such services. These developments were largely due to the generous financial support offered by the Capuchins in Europe and in North America and through public fund-raising efforts of Capuchin mission offices and lay associations. In 1974, a total of two hundred and twenty primary schools were handed over by the Diocese of Livingstone to the government, which hereafter had responsibility for their administration. The provision of assistance to Angolan refugees became a major focus of the work of the Irish Capuchins in Zambia in the 1980s. Fr. Benignus Buckley OFM Cap. was the principal co-ordinator at the Sioma mission dealing with the huge numbers of refugees fleeing the civil war in Angola who were accommodated in various camps in Namibia and in Zambia. While there was an emphasis on education and health care services in the Zambian mission, the friars also strove to promote their own Capuchin way-of-life. A major weakness was identified in the lack of local vocations. Ad-hoc efforts were made to promote vocations and develop a novitiate programme before the establishment in 1983 of the Franciscan House of Studies just outside Lusaka to provide training for men aspiring to become friars. In 1992 the Franciscan House of Studies became St. Bonaventure’s College, a formation centre for the Franciscan Orders. In July 2007 a dedicated Capuchin novitiate was opened at Camerino near Lusaka.

Over one hundred Irish friars and nearly twenty American Capuchins have ministered in Zambia since the start of missionary work in the country. The numbers peaked in the late 1960s when there were sixty-two missionary friars in the country. Today, in the territory originally assigned to the Irish Capuchins, eighteen different religious congregations have a presence. There are approximately thirty-one parishes with various apostolic groups responding to the many spiritual and social needs of the local populace. Working alongside members of other religious congregations and lay professionals, the friars have had an immeasurable impact on the lives of many impoverished Zambians. The Capuchin Custody of Zambia remains under the jurisdiction of the Irish Capuchin Province. Irish friars are still working and ministering in Zambian continuing an unbroken ninety-year record of service on the continent.

Collection Content

The African mission collection in the Irish Capuchin Archives includes correspondence, visitation records, financial reports, diaries and journals, oral histories, publications, newspaper clippings and photographs (in albums, loose files and born-digital format) relating to the many years of Irish Capuchin missionary activity on the African continent. The collection comprises material sent back to the Irish Province and to the Capuchin Foreign Mission Office by Irish Capuchins in Africa from the 1930s onward. The papers chronicle the life and work of the Irish Capuchins since their arrival in South Africa in 1929 and in what was then known as Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia) in 1931. The files of correspondence between the missionary friars and their Provincial Ministers in Ireland illustrate the areas or spheres in which they laboured: parish work, education, health-care, social development and evangelization. Geographically, this work took place primarily in Cape Town, South Africa, and in Barotseland, later the western province of Zambia. The records reflect the impact of the Irish Capuchin missionary presence particularly in the building and management of parishes, and in the fields of education, health-care provision, and socio-economic development.