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The Catholic Boys’ Brigade was founded by Fr. Benvenutus Guy OSFC (1860-1927), a Capuchin friar, in March 1894. Mainly composed of impoverished children from the Church Street area, the organisation was initially called St. Joseph’s Boys’ Brigade. The stated objects of the Brigade were ‘to crush vice and evil habits among boys, to instruct them thoroughly in the Christian doctrine … to give them habits of obedience, discipline, and self-respect and love for ecclesiastical authority and holy religion and to promote their moral, physical and temporal well-being’. The idea of forming a Brigade for the Catholic boys of Dublin sprung from the success achieved by the Protestant Boys’ Brigade. The first meeting hall of the Brigade was in a house in Smithfield which was rented at 5s per week. This meeting was held on 24 April 1894 with nine boys in attendance. The organisation grew rapidly. The Brigade Hall was soon relocated to a property (formerly a smelting foundry) at 156 Church Street which was purchased for the sum of £300. The organizing committee also succeeded in obtaining the use of an old vegetable market at the rear of the Hall which was used as a drill yard in 1895. The newly furnished hall and gallery could hold 1,500 attendees. A uniform was supplied to each enrolled boy consisting of a sash, a cap and a badge. An important aspect of the Brigade’s activities was physical exercise and participants routinely trained in ‘physical drilling, figure marching, squad and company drills’. A band was also established under the supervision of Fr. Sebastian O’Brien OSFC (1867-1931). A night-school for instructing illiterate young boys was founded in October 1899 and soon attracted thirty-five students. Religious instruction was supplied by the Capuchin friars. This was initially performed by Fr. Benvenutus Guy OSFC and later by Fr. Paul Neary OSFC (1857-1939). In 1904 the Church Street Capuchins transferred trusteeship of the properties owned by the Catholic Boys’ Brigade to lay stewardship.

This subseries includes a large collection of the correspondence of Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap. The subseries includes letters from many prominent Irish political, literary, artistic, and religious figures. Notable correspondents include Maud Gonne MacBride, Jack B. Yeats, Georgie Yeats, Seán O’Sullivan, Michael Healy, and the sculptors Clare Sheridan and Seamus Murphy. Prominent Irish writers represented in the correspondence include Pearse Hutchison, Benedict Kiely, Seamus MacManus, Francis MacManus, Francis McCullagh, Kathleen M. Murphy, William Frederick Paul Stockley, Germaine Stockley, Ernie O'Malley, Daniel Corkery, Máirín Cregan, D.L. Kelleher, Helena Concannon, Alice Curtayne, and Denis Gywnn. Other notable correspondents include Aodh de Blacam, Frank Duff, Aloys Georg Fleishmann, Michael A. Bowles (the founder of the National Symphony Orchestra), Frank Ryan, Thomas MacGreevey, Sophie Raffalovich O’Brien, Robert Monteith, T.J. Kiernan, Margaret Mary Pearse, Joseph Patrick Walshe (Irish Ambassador to the Holy See), Victor Waddington, and Charles E. Kelly. The collection also includes letters from significant political figures such as Seán T. O’Kelly, Gerald Boland, James Ryan, Richard Mulcahy, and Seán MacBride.

Letters from several Irish language authors and cultural revivalist figures such as Monsignor Pádraig De Brún, Tomás Ó Con Cheanainn, Seán Ó Súilleabháin, Seán Ó Cuirrín, Tadhg Ó Donnchadha (‘Torna’), Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha (‘An Seabhac’), Tomás Ó Muircheartaigh, Seán Ó Ciarghusa, Gearóid Mac Spealáin, Aindrias Ó Muimhneacháin and Críostóir Ó Floinn are also present in the collection. There are also many letters from prominent religious and church figures such as Archbishop John D’Alton, Archbishop Joseph Walsh, Bishop William MacNeely, Fr. Thomas O’Donnell CM (Rector of All Hallows College, Dublin), Archbishop Redmond Prendiville, Archbishop Thomas O’Donnell, Fr. Paschal Robinson OFM, Archbishop Gerald O’Hara, Bishop John Dignan, Archbishop Anselm Edward John Kenealy OFM Cap., Archbishop Sylvester Mulligan OFM Cap., Canon Patrick Rogers, Fr. Terence L. Connolly SJ (Librarian, Boston College, Massachusetts), and Bishop Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap. Fr. Senan’s most prolific correspondent (in terms of quantity of letters) was Joseph O’Connor (Seosamh Ó Conchubhair), a writer from Fossa near Killarney in County Kerry. O’Connor seemingly exerted an early literary influence on Fr. Senan who consistently addressed him as ‘teacher’. The writer invariably signed his letters to Fr. Senan by using the pen name ‘Jocundus’. The files also include letters from Capuchin friars, advertisers, sales representatives, printers, and other individuals involved in the production of the ‘The Capuchin Annual’.

The extensive and often lavish use of photographs in 'The Capuchin Annual' set the publication apart from many other periodicals of the time. Photography in the 'Annual' served a very clear purpose – it projected an idealised image of Ireland to its wide readership in a way that was arguably more effective than any prose. In the early years, scenic views such as ‘Evening in Dublin’ or ‘Killiney Bay’ would appear randomly, but in later years photographic features became far more extensive. The 'Annual’s' photographic archive is particularly rich and constitutes a valuable pictorial record of life in Ireland in the twentieth century.