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The sub-series includes research chronicling the life and temperance crusade of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC. Much of the research focuses on narratives of Fr. Mathew’s campaign.

The sub-series contains a collection of printed books, church plate, relics and ephemera associated with Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC. Some of these objects were used for exhibition purposes by the Capuchin friars at commemorative events marking anniversaries associated with the temperance campaign.

The sub-series contains research notes, correspondence and publications on Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC compiled by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. (1876-1965). Fr. Stanislaus served as Provincial Archivist for the Capuchin Order in Ireland from 1919 to 1958. During this time, he worked assiduously to collect and record any events connected with the history of the Irish Capuchins. In the course of this research he assembled a good deal of material relating to Fr. Mathew and his championing of the temperance cause.

The sub-series contains an important collection of original temperance society medals. Most of the medals in the collection are associated with Fr. Mathew’s campaign but some relate to temperance activities before and after him. The Cork Total Abstinence Society’s medals were important because they served as important reminders of the pledge, and also as miniature temperance catechisms for the many illiterates who took the pledge. Fr. Mathew’s medals were large and inscribed with familiar religious symbolism. Most were of pewter, although some silver and gold medals were also available for particularly distinguished members. Generally, one side had the words of the pledge within a shining cross, together with Fr. Mathew’s name and the Society’s founding date (10 April 1838). The reverse depicted a well-dressed man, carrying a banner, ‘prosperity’, and a woman, ‘domestic comfort’, stood next to a lamb, surmounted by a cross and an angel. This scene was overlaid by the Latin phrase, In hoc signo vinces (‘by this sign shall you conquer’).

The sub-series contains research notes, document transcriptions, correspondence and publications on Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC compiled by Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap. (1915-1997). The Waterford-born Capuchin friar, Brother (later Father) Nessan Shaw OFM Cap. completed a thesis titled ‘The Life and Times of Fr. Theobald Mathew’ for an MA degree in University College Cork in 1939. He retained a life-long interest in the subject and accumulated a large number of documentary sources, publications and notes pertaining to Fr. Mathew and his campaign against intemperance.

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.

This section includes records relating to the construction and repair history of buildings held by the Capuchin Franciscans in Cork. The sub-series includes specifications for buildings, correspondence, bills of costs for construction, property upkeep and improvement, and contracts for repair and servicing.

The sub-series contains research notes, correspondence and publications on Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC compiled by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. (1875-1953). Fr. Angelus was considered an authority on the history of the Irish Capuchins. The section includes transcripts, correspondence, published articles and research notes pertaining to Fr. Mathew and his temperance campaign.

The subseries comprises a small collection of correspondence and family papers relating to William Woodlock (1832-1890), a barrister, and Dublin Police Court Magistrate.

William Woodlock was a member of a prominent and well-connected middle-class Catholic family. His grandfather was William Paul Woodlock (c.1780-1834). Originally a native of Roscrea in County Tipperary, in 1798 he moved to Dublin where he established a successful hardware business. One of his sons, Bartholomew Woodlock (1819-1902), was an influential Catholic clergyman, the founder of All Hallows College in Dublin (1842), a founding member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Ireland (1844), and the second rector (1861-79) of the Catholic University of Ireland (now University College Dublin). He also served as Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise from 1879 to 1895. Bartholomew Woodlock’s sister Joanna Woodlock married (1829) the eminent Irish physician Dominic Corrigan (1802-1880). Bartholomew’s brother Thomas Woodlock married (1830) Ellen Mahony (1811-1884), a renowned philanthropist and Catholic charity worker who helped establish the Children’s Hospital on Buckingham Street in Dublin in 1872 (now Temple Street Children’s Hospital). The Reverend Francis Sylvester Mahony (1804-1866) or ‘Father Prout’, the well-known priest, writer, and humourist, was an elder brother of Ellen Woodlock.

William Woodlock was born in Dublin in 1832. He was the son of William Woodlock (1801-1883) and Catherine Woodlock (née Teeling). The elder William was a lawyer and an associate of the nationalist politician Daniel O’Connell. His son William was educated at the Jesuit College in Fribourg and was afterwards a gold medallist in oratory at Trinity College, Dublin. He was called to the Bar during Trinity Term in 1855. He was later appointed a magistrate to the Dublin Police Court. He worked from offices at 13 Hardwicke Place, and later at 15 Mountjoy Square in Dublin. He married Frances Dillon (c.1832-1916) on 4 February 1865. They had one son (Henry Woodlock). William Woodlock was a devout Catholic. He was also a keen scholar and linguist, contributing several articles to the Jesuit devotional magazine, ‘The Irish Monthly’. William Woodlock died (suddenly) in Dublin on 12 June 1890 (aged 58). His funeral was celebrated by his uncle, Bishop Bartholomew Woodlock, and he was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.

The content of this small collection is eclectic and includes family correspondence, photographs, ephemera, and writings pertaining to several generations of the Woodlock family of Dublin. Aside from records directly relating to the legal career of William Woodlock (1832-1890), the collection also includes documents pertaining to his siblings, and to his uncle Bishop Bartholomew Woodlock (1819-1902), and to other Catholic religious connected to the Woodlock family (particularly religious sisters of the Society of the Sacred Heart). A small amount of material relating to Thomas F. Woodlock (1866-1945), a Dublin-born economist who emigrated to the United States in 1892, is also extant. Thomas F. Woodlock was appointed editor of the ‘Wall Street Journal’ in 1905. Thomas F. Woodlock was the elder brother of the Irish Jesuit priest Fr. Francis Woodlock SJ (1871-1940), and a grandnephew of Bishop Bartholomew Woodlock (1819-1902).

Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap., the editor of ‘The Capuchin Annual’, was responsible for compiling this collection, presumably for research purposes.