Correspondence of Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., and Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap., with Robert F. Mahony, President, American Association for Recognition of the Irish Republic; Fr. Brendan O’Callaghan OFM Cap., Central Council of Irish County Associations; Eugene Twomey, Secretary, Fianna Fail, Inc., Irish Republican Party of America; Charles F. Tiernan; Joseph O’Byrne of the Fathers’ Albert & Dominic Committee; and the Irish American National Alliance. The letters refer to appeals from various Irish-American republican organizations calling for the repatriation to Ireland of the mortal remains of Fathers Albert Bibby OFM Cap. and Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap.
Letters regarding a dispute over the editorship of the temperance publication, 'The Father Mathew Record', also known as 'The Irish Home Journal'. The file includes a letter from Brian O’Higgins to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OSFC, Provincial Minister, complaining about his dismissal as associate editor of the 'Record' by Fr. Joseph Fenlon OSFC who ‘desired to keep politics out of the Journal’. O’Higgins, a member of Sinn Féin, admits that he is ‘on what is known as “the run”’. With notes by Fr. Edwin regarding the proprietorship of the Journal, and the need to reserve the appointment of editor to the council of the Capuchin Franciscan Order in Ireland. Later, Fr. Joseph wrote to Fr. Edwin confirming his resignation from the Presidency of Father Mathew Hall and the temperance sodality. The file also includes a signed notice of a special meeting of the Hall Committee affirming that the ‘"Record" was started by Fr. Aloysius [Travers], President of the Hall … [and] that the Office of the Record was transferred to the Hall premises’. The committee members contended that the 'Record' magazine was the property of the committee ‘and that the Provincial Superiors acted without consideration of the circumstances when … they decided to take it over and have it conducted independently of the committee and its President’. (10 June 1920).
Ledger of loans and monies supplied to the Irish Capuchin missions in Africa compiled by Fr. Kieran O’Callaghan OFM Cap., Provincial Secretary. The ledger includes records of money supplied to Fr. Alban Cullen OFM Cap. and Fr. Oliver O’Hanlon OFM Cap. to build parish churches in Athlone and Parow, Cape Town, in March 1933. £1,700 was given to Monsignor Killian Flynn OFM Cap. to build a friary (14 June 1937), and £1,000 was given to Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap. for Livingstone Church in Northern Rhodesia. The accounts also include monies derived from the Seraphic Mass Association (SMA) from Aug. 1931-Jan. 1935. The accounts are signed are by Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap. Provincial Minister, 10 Aug. 1937.
An image of a large group of Capuchin friars. A cover annotation reads: ‘Fr. Edwin and students’. Identifiable individuals include: Second row, second from the right: Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap. (1874-1938) Second row, third from the right: Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. (1877-1925) First row, second from the right: Fr. Ignatius Collins OFM Cap. (1885-1961) Third row, first from the right: Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap. (1886-1971) Third row, third from the right: Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. (1880-1968) Third row, fifth from the right: Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. (1883-1935)
Lectures on the history of the Irish Capuchin missions (primarily in Africa) compiled by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. The talks were likely prepared for promotional and educational purposes. They include copy documents including a letter from the Most Rev. Bernard O’Riley, Vicar Apostolic of Cape Town, to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, requesting a Capuchin foundation in his diocese (12 May 1927), and copy letters from Archbishop Carlo Salotti, Secretary of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, to Fr. Melchor a Benisa OFM Cap., Minister General, re the Irish Capuchin mission in Barotseland, Northern Rhodesia (Jan. 1931).
Letter from Br. Alexius Paolucci OFM Cap. (1898-1983) to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, on the progress of building work in Northern Rhodesia. He writes: ‘These buildings of course will be of native constructions, up to the time that the Fathers will have enough bricks made to build good buildings’.
Letter from Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap., Hermiston, Oregon, to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., regarding the disposition of Stanfield Church and the progress of building works on other churches in his ministry in Oregan. He wrote: ‘As soon as the weather moderates I will begin the building of the Church at Pilot Rock. I intended to call it Santa Clara but I will get a donation of $1,000 if I call it Saint Agnes. What’s in a name? I’ve been called many names myself, few of them as complimentary in the change as this one’.
Letter to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap. from Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap. (21 Oct. 1936) re the financial situation of 'The Capuchin Annual' and 'The Father Mathew Record'. Fr. Senan insists that the publications office is ‘solvent’. He adds ‘I am about half-ways through with the 1937 'Annual'. 21,000 copies will be printed. The gross revenue from this edition will be £4,125. … The total cost of the production will be £2,500. The gross profit £1,625; from £800 to £1,000 net profit’. Several account statements are attached including 'The Father Mathew Record' expenses, Sept. 1931-Aug. 1932; distribution accounts for the St. Anthony of Padua publication; Receipt and expenses for 'The Capuchin Annual', 1930-2; Outstanding advertising accounts for 'The Father Mathew Record' and 'The Capuchin Annual', Aug. 1932.
Letter from the Most Rev. Daniel Cohalan, Bishop of Cork, to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, referring to the withdrawal of Fr. Dominic’s faculties due to his inability to take the examination for renewal of faculties. Bishop Cohalan also refers to his unease on reading an announcement in the papers that Fr. Dominic is to be appointed honorary chaplain to a brigade of the IRA. The Bishop wrote: ‘Now I put it to you that a lay body has no authority to confer an ecclesiastical honour from a lay authority’. He later asks Fr. Edwin: ‘Are you not conceding to a military brigade what belongs essentially to the church?’ With a copy reply from Fr. Edwin claiming that he knew nothing of Fr. Dominic's appointment as chaplain to the IRA until his attention was drawn to a report in the Cork newspapers.
Letter from the Most Rev. Daniel Cohalan, Bishop of Cork, to Fr. Martin Hyland OFM Cap., Guardian, Rochestown Capuchin Friary, expressing his happiness that Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. is back in Cork again. He notes that he ‘has been a good while in prison [and] previous to that he was a war chaplain’, and requests that he prepare for examination for the renewal of faculties to preach and to hear confessions. The examination will be a written test on moral and dogmatic theology. With copy reply from Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, asserting that ‘owing to the degrading and cruel treatments he suffered for the past thirteen or fourteen months at the hands of the British’ it would be unwise to ask Fr. Dominic to prepare for the aforementioned examination.
