Notes compiled by John O’Connell (1843-1905), a grandson of Daniel O’Connell, ‘The Liberator’. The book contains accounts of various Provincial Chapters of the Capuchin Order in Ireland, records of personnel changes in various Capuchin communities, and notes on meetings and other activities of the Third Order of St. Francis in Kilkenny. Records include membership and ordination lists. Newspaper cuttings are pasted into the volume. A photographic print of the Capuchin Friary at Rochestown in also extant in the volume. A partial index is also given: • List of Third Order Brothers in 1895 • List of Third Order Novices in 1897 • List of Third Order Novices in 1898 • Members of Council in 1895 • Collectors on Feast days • Canopy and Banner bearers • Monthly collectors • Portinuncula arrangements • Capuchin Chapter, 1898 • Third Order election, 1898 • Immaculate Conception and Christmas Arrangements, 1898 • List of Third Order Brothers for 1899 • Ordinations • Appointment of a Commissary Visitor to Third Order branches in England • Vergers and collectors, Holy Thursday • Sunday and Holiday collectors • List of Third Order brothers in 1902 A list is given on page 21 of ‘students who left the convent in Kilkenny … for Church Street, Dublin, about the ninth of April 1900, received the tonsure and minor orders on Saturday, 22nd September 1900’. The list includes the names of Brothers Sylvester Mulligan, Angelus Healy, Stanislaus Kavanagh and Albert Bibby’.
Fr. Richard Henebry (front row, seated, second from left) at an Irish language summer school organised by Conrad na Gaelige. The summer school was possibly held in the Waterford Gaeltacht. Fr. Albert Bibby OSFC is seated in the front row (first on the right).
A letter from Rory O’Connor to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. recalling the republican occupation of the Four Courts and the assistance rendered by the friar during that time. Reference is also made to ‘co-ordinated military action against N.E. Ulster’. O’Connor concludes ‘We have never acknowledged the heroic services which you rendered us during the days you were with us in the Four Courts, during the attack, it seems unnecessar[y] as your devotion to Ireland’s liberty is no less than ours’. (Volume page 112).
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.
A clipping of an article reporting on the death of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. in California on 14 February 1925. The newspaper title from which the clipping was taken is not given.
A letter from Patrick Collins, 6 Clonmore Road, Ballybough, Dublin, to Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap. enclosing a copy of an account of the final hours and execution of Seán Hueston in Kilmainham Jail on 8 May 1916. The account was written by his uncle who was a relation of Seán Hueston. Reference is made in the account to the ministrations to Heuston by Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap.
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’.
The file contains the following editions of this newspaper published in Kilkenny: 21 Mar. 1863 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 3,343) 27 Dec. 1867 (Vol. XXXVIII, No. 3,391) The latter edition has a manuscript annotation ‘Mr. Bibby’ referring to an article penned by ‘the nephew alluded to’ relating to the presence of a Catholic clergyman at his uncle’s bedside during his final illness.
