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A notebook containing extracts from letters received from parish priests and other individuals (mostly religious) referring to retreats and temperance missions given by Capuchin friars from 1913-19. The volume was compiled by Fr. Albert Bibby OSFC, Provincial Secretary. Most of the letters refer to requests for friars to conduct missions and (in some cases) to the need for the priests to converse in Irish. The volume includes:
• A letter from Fr. Innocent Ryan, Parish Priest, Fethard, County Tipperary, affirms that the local men ‘have safely ridden the storm of temptation that blew over the place on the occasion of the “old fair” on Friday last. Bucket fulls of coffey [sic] were consumed; and even Bovril (Friday and all!) was, under false ideas of permission, brought into requisition’. Nov. 1913.
• A letter from Rev. Phelan, Parish Priest, Glenmore, County Waterford, to Fr. Augustine Hayden OSFC, notes that the ‘harvest was threshed without drink and the farmers and labourers were perfectly happy. Only in two cases out of possibly 200 threshings was an attempt made to break through the pledge’. (17 Jan. 1914).
• A letter from Rev. J. Flavin, Parish Priest, Arklow, County Wicklow, to Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC, Provincial Minister, refers to his desire to have Fr. Laurence Dowling OSFC for a mission. He added ‘I did not mind who came with him provided he was not a Sinn Feiner’. (28 Dec. 1917).

Letter from the Most Rev. Abraham Brownrigg, Bishop of Ossory, to Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC, Provincial Minister, referring to an anonymous letter published in the 'Kilkenny Journal' appearing to advocate ‘the introduction of a Boys’ Brigade into Kilkenny to be worked by and under the supervision of your fathers in Walkin Street’. Brownrigg expresses his disapproval of such a proposal. With a letter from Fr. Jarlath Hynes OSFC assuring the Bishop that ‘our fathers in Kilkenny have no knowledge whatsoever of the anonymous letter … nor has there ever been any question or thought amongst us … of having anything to do with a Boys’ Brigade in your city’.

Letters from solicitors regarding the potential purchase of 151 Church Street (part of the Father Mathew Hall property) by clients who hold the said premises under a lease made on 7 Sept. 1920 from Fr. Peter Bowe OFM Cap. and others to Robert Kavanagh for the term of 150 years at the nominal rent of 5d per year.

Correspondence (including many copies) regarding the protracted negotiations with the Rev. Andrew Craig Robinson, to secure the conveyance to the Capuchin friars of two houses on Walkin Street (See CA KK/2/1/1/3/13). Correspondents include Rev. Andrew Craig Robinson, Ballymoney Rectory, Ballineen, County Cork, Fr. Berchmans Cantillon, Fr. Peter Bowe, W. Carrigan, John R. Peart, conveyancing counsel, Nicholas Shorthal, solicitor for the Capuchin friars, and Michael Buggy, solicitor. Robinson noted that the said premises were mortgaged to Michael Buggy, that he was a joint owner with his sister-in-law and nephew, and that they would seek £625 for the outright purchase of the holding. One of the copy letters (8 Jan. 1916) from the Rev. Robinson to Nicholas Shorthal notes that he has received a letter from Lord Ormonde’s agent ‘saying that in consequence of a fire by which a valuable number of documents were lost they have no maps of the property in Kilkenny in the eighteenth century’. The file includes letters mainly referring to emendations to the draft conveyance of the properties, to negotiations over the purchase price, and to a dispute over the bill of costs for securing the conveyance and to the amount of tithe rentcharge payable out of the said premises. On 1 July 1917 John R. Peart wrote to Nicholas Shorthal affirming that they had ‘certainly had trouble in this case out all proportion to the purchase money and to the scale of fees involved’. Fr. Bowe wrote on 28 Dec. 1917 ‘we had patience so long with Rev. Mr. Robinson I suppose we must keep it up to the end’. One of Shorthal’s correspondents, James F. Reade, acknowledged the receipt of £3 3s 0d and referred to the air raids in London in June 1918 as ‘most damnable experiences. … One never gets used to these raids, the noise of the bombs falling, guns firing, shells singing and exploding and machine guns etc. make an infernal row’.

Correspondence relating to the transfer of properties on Church Street (nos. 155-157) to lay trustees of the Catholic Boys’ Brigade. Correspondents include, Thomas J. Furlong, solicitor, 11 Eustace Street, Dublin, Fr. Fiacre Brophy OSFC, Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Provincial Minister, William Mooney & Son, solicitors, 16 Fleet Street, Dublin, Michael Murphy, solicitor, 44 South Mall, Cork, and John Jameson, Bow Street Distillery, Dublin. Most of the correspondence relates to instructions to be given to solicitors with respect to the drawing up of a conveyance for the above-mentioned properties and to the need for approval of the deed which allows Fr. Matthew O’Connor OSFC and Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC to retire from their trusteeship. John Jameson assured Fr. Fiacre that ‘this company would be very reluctant to put up a building that would be objectionable to your community. … I thought there was no likelihood of the neighbourly relations which have always existed between this company and yourselves being interrupted’. On 20 Dec. 1904 Fr. Paul Neary OSFC stated that the ‘members of our Order who are trustees of the Church Street premises of the Boys’ Brigade have no desire to continue their trusteeship and are willing to hand it to any persons to whom they can do so, without breach of their trust’.

Declaration of George Lynch (aged 94), Ulverton House, Dalkey, affirming that his father William Lynch of Roscrea, County Tipperary, died at Dr. Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin, in 1827. He also states that his brother, Gilbert, died intestate in Sheffield in 1830 at the age of 22. The declaration was made for the satisfaction of Fr. Edward (Peter) Bowe OSFC and relates to the purchase by the Capuchin friars of premises on Carter’s Lane. (See CA CS/2/2/8/3).

Deed of covenant of title for the assignment of properties on Charlotte Quay from Thomas Wellbank Morgan, 13 Blackheath Rise, Lewisham, Kent, and others to Fr. Maurice (Nicholas) Murphy OSFC, Fr. Thomas (Matthew) O’Connor OSFC, Fr. Joseph (Bernard) Jennings OSFC and Fr. Edward (Peter) Bowe OSFC, Charlotte Quay, Cork. The deed refers to the intended purchase by the Capuchin friars of the said premises as set out in a deed of assignment dated 21 Jan. 1895. With a declaration of James Scanlan, 69 South Mall, Cork, agent, affirming that he has, for the past sixteen years, received the rents of the Charlotte Quay properties for Thomas Wellbank Morgan. 1 Jan. 1895.

Demand notice from J. Simpson, Assistant Secretary, Commissioners of Inland Revenue, 6 Ely Place, Dublin, to Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC seeking the return of the attached form relating to duties on 21/28 Bow Street, Dublin.

File relating to an abortive attempt to establish an Irish Capuchin missionary presence in the Cape Colony, South Africa. In 1903, Bishop Hugh McSherry (1852-1940), Vicar Apostolic of the Cape of Good Hope (Eastern District), invited the Irish Capuchins to establish missionary foundations in his Vicariate. The large missionary area offered to the friars comprised the civil divisions of Albert, Aliwal North, Herschel and Barclay East collectively known as the Gariep (later Aliwal) territory. The file includes:
• Ecclesiastical return of the numbers of missions and Catholics in the Eastern Vicariate. 30 June 1903.
• Correspondence between Bishop Hugh McSherry and Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC, Provincial Minister.
• Draft report of Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC on his visit to Port Elizabeth to view the proposed territory in March 1904.
• Draft letters to the Capuchin Minister General re the proposed mission.
• Draft memoranda of agreement for the proposed mission stations and properties to be held by the Irish Capuchins in the Vicariate.
• Colour trace map of the Eastern Vicariate showing the locations of the proposed Capuchin mission stations.
Other correspondents include: W.H. Butler, J. Commins, Fr. Lewis B. Gately, Fr. J.J. O’Reilly, St. Mary’s, Cape Town, and Fr. Bernard Christen of Andermatt OSFC, Minister General of the Capuchin Franciscans. On 13 July 1903, Bishop McSherry wrote: ‘I fear it would be practically impossible for me in a letter to convey to you any fair idea of the state of things in this country. Everything here is quite different to what it is at home – climate, season, habits and customs of the people, conditions of travelling, the ways of the natives – everything’. Later, the Bishop explained that the ‘mission district is 175 miles in its greatest length and 75 miles in its greatest width. It contains the important towns of Ailwal and Burghersdorp and the following smaller ones, Jamestown and Barclay East. … There are no Catholic schools in the district. The climate is about the best in South Africa or in the world’. (4 Jan. 1904).