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Letters from An tAthair Peadar Ó Laoghaire, Castlelyons, County Cork, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. The letters relate to instruction in the Irish language (particularly for children), and translations of prayers and other religious material from English into Irish. In a letter (9 Nov. 1918) O’Leary expresses his hope that Bibby, Father Augustine, and Brother Bernard have all escaped the flu and ‘are all keeping free from that plague’. In another letter (Dec. 1918) O’Leary wrote ‘20 years ago people used to write to me and say “An tAthair Peadar”’. He also states that he is in good health and feels blessed ‘to have much energy in my 80th year’. In another letter (27 Feb. 1919) he argued that ‘the writers of religious poetry in English should all be gathered together and taken out and shot! Why do they take it for granted that because poetry is religious it may be nonsense!’. He later claimed that ‘those English religious hymns are really absurd’ (Mar. 1919). In another letter (23 Mar. 1919) O’Leary wrote ‘if you want to be sure of the real sound of the words get a real native speaker to say the words for you’. In December 1919 O’Leary invited Fr. Albert to Cork and to stay for a fortnight as he wanted to talk about ‘those little hymns of mine’. The file includes notes and some Irish language extracts and translations of mostly religious material.

Copies of letters of An tAthair Peadar Ó Laoghaire to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. and ‘Sister Joseph’. The copies are on ‘The Capuchin Annual / Church Street / Dublin’ headed paper and were probably compiled by Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap. The letter to Fr. Albert (17 Sept. 1906) reads ‘The word “léighean” comprises every sort of literary speech as distinguished from oral speech, i.e., books of all sorts, whether written or printed’.

A file containing an Irish language manuscript titled ‘An Craos-Deamhan’ (with English translation) by An tAthair Peadar Ó Laoghaire. The manuscript (with the accompanying translation) was seemingly sent for serial publication in the ‘Cork Sun’ newspaper. The newspaper ran from 18 April 1903 to 1905. The text was sent to Máire Ní Shíthe, the Irish-language editor of the ‘Cork Sun’ (43 Grand Parade, Cork). The text relates to Cathal mac Finguine (died 742). The tale was edited in Irish with an Irish-English glossary by Ó Laoghaire in 1905. It was published by An tAthair Peadar as ‘An Craos–Deamhan ó’n seana–sgéal 'Aislinge Meic Con Glinne' (Dublin, 1905). An envelope in the file is annotated in the hand of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. and reads: ‘The original manuscript of ‘An Craos-Deamhan’ by an tAthair Peadar Ó Laoghaire with his own English translation’.

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.