Author: Patrick Rogers Publisher: Dublin: Browne and Nolan Ltd. / The Richview Press Language: English Ink stamp on inside front cover reads: ‘Franciscan Capuchin Fathers, Church Street’. Foreword by Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap. (1897-1962).
An original total abstinence pledge card of Jonathon Murphy dated 4 Nov. 1839. The card is signed by Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC. Manuscript annotations on the card indicate that the pledge was renewed on 31 Aug. 1860 and 17 Mar. 1864.
An original certificate of enrollment of Robert Cosgrove in St. Paul’s Temperance Society, Dublin, dated 5 Apr. 1840. With a letter from Ellen Weedon to Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. affirming that the pledge card belonged to her grandfather. The letter is dated 18 Apr. 1927.
An original total abstinence pledge card of Charles Doherty dated 7 Nov. 1847. The card is signed by Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC. With a cover letter (1 Aug. 2001) from Liam O’Connell referring to this item. The letter notes that his ancestor (Charles Doherty) took the pledge in St. Peter’s Pro-Cathedral in Belfast. He also encloses an advertisement from Cantrell & Cochrane, Mineral and Aerated Water Manufacturer, referring to the Apostle of Temperance [c.1900].
Framed manuscript quoting a passage from Romans Ch. 14, verse 21 which reads ‘It is good not to eat flesh, and not to drink wine nor anything whereby thy brother is offended or scandalized, or made weak’. The passage is signed by Fr. Theobald Mathew and is dated at Cork, 5 Feb. 1845.
Framed letter of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC, Imperial Hotel, Dublin, to Richard Dowden referring to the harsh sentence handed down to a sailor at a court martial in Cove (Cobh) Harbour. Fr. Mathew wrote ‘Strict discipline it is true, must be enforced in Her Majesty’s Fleet, but from the Report of the Trial, it is evident that the miserable culprit, was a habitual drunkard, and consequently a lunatic, and should be treated as such …’.
Framed letter of Lord John Russell (1792-1878), Chatham Place, London, to Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC, re the grant of an annual pension of £300 from the Civil List as a mark of approbation for his work in combatting intemperance in Ireland.