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Minute book of the Father Mathew Centenary Committee which had the responsibility for financing and erecting the statue of the Apostle of Temperance on Sackville (later O’Connell Street), Dublin. The Centenary Committee was made up of Catholics, Anglicans and other Protestant denominations and notably received the support of the Most Rev. William Plunket, Baron Plunket, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin: ‘Most thoroughly do I sympathize in any movement for honouring the memory of one to whom the cause of temperance in this land is so largely indebted’. (10 Oct. 1889).
Prominent public (non-clerical) figures in the committee included:
George Noble Plunkett (1851-1948) an Irish nationalist and father of Joseph Plunkett, one of the executed leaders of the 1916 Rising.
John Redmond MP (1856-1918), an Irish home rule nationalist, later leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
Michael Davitt (1846-1906), a nationalist and agrarian campaigner.
Thomas Sexton MP (1848-1932), Lord Mayor of Dublin.
William Martin Murphy MP (1844-1919), a businessman and politician.
Timothy Charles Harrington MP (1851-1910), a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
The minute book reveals that from the outset committee members were in support of resolutions which would place the statue in a prominent public place in the city. For instance, Thomas Connolly suggested that a ‘statue should be erected similar to the O’Connell [monument], and that it should be placed at the other end of O’Connell Street so that people might be reminded by the two monuments of the two great men who were in a sense the complement of one another …’. (Oct. 1889).
• This intent was formalised in a resolution forwarded by the Committee to Dublin Corporation on 1 May 1890 ‘requesting them to grant a site in Upper O’Connell Street, Dublin, for the erection of the Memorial Statue to Father Theobald Mathew’. (1 May 1889).
• The aim of the Centenary Committee was from the beginning to site the statue in the most prominent space available in the city linking the historically concurrent campaigns undertaken by Fr. Mathew (temperance) and O’Connell (emancipation and repeal). It should also be noted that the Corporation was unanimous in granting the O’Connell Street site. (15 May 1890).
• An application was made to the boundary surveyor to obtain ‘the consent of the Corporation for a 16 feet square space on the site known as the “Retreat” in Upper O’Connell Street which has been already allotted to the Committee for the erection of the Father Mathew Centenary Memorial’. (5 June 1890).
The siting of an Fr. Mathew Statue on the main thoroughfare (St. Patrick’s Street) running through Cork city in 1864 influenced the Dublin Committee: Henry Brown reminded the Committee that the ‘citizens of Cork had already placed Father Mathew’s Statue in their city, where he remembered standing on the platform in Patrick’s Street, while the Mayor of Cork, John Francis Maguire MP was unveiling Foley’s exquisite statue’. (Oct. 1889). By October 1892 a total of £1,114 5s 3d had been collected by the Centenary Committee (13 Oct. 1892). The minute book includes subscription lists, accounts and pasted-in newspaper clippings re meetings of the committee and its efforts to raise funds for the memorial. Funding was sourced from various local temperance societies (both Protestant and Catholic), workingmen’s clubs, national schools and colleges, and public and professional bodies (corporations and the police force). Donations were received from across Ireland and from Irish emigrant communities in America, Canada, Australia and elsewhere.
The resolutions adopted at the official unveiling of the statue on 8 February 1893 reflected the widespread appeal of the Fr. Mathew commemoration and the ‘placing of a statue among the public monuments of the metropolis’:
• ‘That as the Rev. Theobald Mathew loved his countrymen of all creeds and laboured zealously for their moral improvement and temporal prosperity, this great meeting rejoices that this public monument to his memory has been erected to remind our people of what he accomplished in the cause of total abstinence’.
• ‘That the Centenary Statue of the Rev. Theobald Mathew having been erected by subscriptions from men of all parties, and regardless of religious distinctions, it is appropriate that it be now unveiled by the Right Hon. James Shanks as Lord Mayor of the City of Dublin’. (2 Feb. 1893).
Reference is also made in the Centenary Committee minute book to the very novel nature of the award of the commission to a female sculptor. Count Plunkett, a leading member of the Committee, referred to ‘the merit which characterizes the design of Miss Redmond, a young artist who had made her mark, not only in this country but on the continent, in spite of her youth’. (1 May 1890).

Minutes of Committee Meetings regarding the new Church of St. Mary of the Angels, Church Street, Dublin. The minutes appear to have been compiled by Fr. Daniel Patrick O’Reilly OSFC. The first meeting was held on 20 July 1861 ‘for the purpose of collecting funds for the erection of the church at which the Rt. Hon. Sir William Carroll [1819-1870] MD, Lord Mayor of Dublin, took the chair …’. The opening meeting referred to the ‘poverty of the location in which they [the Capuchins] have chosen with the spirit of their founder the Seraphic St. Francis … to erect a temple worthy of Catholicity …’. The minutes of the meetings mainly refer to efforts to secure funding for financing the construction of the new church. Statements of expenditure are included in some of the minutes.

Thanking Miss Feeney

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Sent from Mitchell's on Grafton Street

Discussions about Miss O Rourke and Miss Nugent

Letter expressing regret to Fr. Prior that she missed him while he was in Dublin. She had wished to speak to him on a matter of conscience.

The Mission and Retreat Apostolate

Since the foundation of the Order in the early sixteenth century preaching by the Capuchin Franciscan friars has played an important role in the life of the Catholic Church. It was also one of the foremost apostolates and evangelistic activities undertaken by the Irish Capuchins. The practice of preaching week-long special missions became widespread in Ireland after Catholic Emancipation (1829). The upsurge in devotional practices and the dramatic increase in Mass attendance in the late nineteenth century created a widespread demand for parish missions and retreats. Secular (diocesan) priests were not always plentiful so there was a general dependence upon religious orders for preaching and for parish mission work. The geographical extent of these missions ranged throughout the entire country. The content of the sermons preached during these missions centred on traditional themes such as vices and virtue and punishment and glory, embodying the Franciscan charism of self-denial, the performance of penance, and peace and goodwill to all. The form of the mission followed traditional patterns with sermons preached by the friars focusing on devotion and prayer. This was frequently adapted to local circumstances. The increasing demand for parish missions and retreats from both the laity and from religious congregations placed a severe demand on the Capuchins. It was difficult to maintain regular religious observance, staff churches and run lay sodalities when many friars and preachers were away on mission work. Despite these difficulties, the number of missions conducted by the Irish friars increased in the first decades of the twentieth century. In the years from 1910 to 1913 the Capuchins undertook 405 weeks of missions throughout Ireland. Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap. (1897-1962), Provincial Minister, referred to the importance of mission preaching in a circular letter to the friars dated 31 August 1943:

'A mission or retreat is a very serious and sacred thing in the eyes of the secular clergy and the people who … who expect us to be distinctive and other, bringing with us that Franciscan atmosphere … We, therefore, exhort the priest to compose their lives, when on missions and retreats, that they will give a true picture of Franciscan spirituality. Let them avoid everything that might shock the spiritual susceptibilities of the clergy and the people; let them observe such external properties as are demanded by the Gospel; and God will bless and reward them as true heirs to the apostolate of St. Francis of Assisi'.

The Temperance Crusade in the twentieth century

Mission work increased dramatically when the Capuchins accepted an invitation from the Irish Catholic hierarchy to preach a national temperance crusade in 1905. Inspired by the life of the famed temperance campaigner and Capuchin priest, Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC (1790-1856), the Irish bishops entrusted the campaign to promote teetotalism throughout Ireland to the friars. The Capuchins dedicated themselves wholeheartedly to the task. Twelve priests were selected to undertake the work and they preached dozens of temperance missions every year. The characteristics of the temperance crusade built upon the existing missionary work of the friars. Travelling from parish to parish, the priests would preach on temperance, give the pledge to refrain from alcohol for at least twelve months, and encourage the congregation to go to confession and receive communion. In order to perpetuate the fruits of their work, efforts were also made to establish temperance sodalities which would meet once a month in the local church. The crusade, which began in earnest in January 1906, was solidly supported by the bishops and clergy who facilitated the efforts of the Capuchin preachers. In 1906, 117 parishes in 23 of the 28 dioceses in the country were visited and a total of about 200,000 pledges were given. In 1912, Fr. Thomas Dowling OSFC (1874-1951), Provincial Minister, informed the General Minister of the Order that since 1905 the pledge had been given to 1,141,191 persons. 'The Father Mathew Record', a monthly magazine founded by Fr. Aloysius Travers OSFC (1870-1957) in 1908 to advance the cause of temperance, published glowing accounts of temperance demonstrations, missions and processions throughout the country. Fr. Aloysius was also responsible for founding the League of Young Irish Crusaders in 1909. Membership of this organisation was confined to persons under twenty years of age. It aimed to promote total abstinence and loyalty to the church and encourage the study of the Irish language and culture. In the first year of its existence, the League succeeded in enrolling almost 100,000 members.

The missionary zeal of the friars ensured that their temperance work extended to almost every part of the country. From Falcarragh in north Donegal to Bantry in west Cork, and from Achill Island off the western seaboard to the urban centres of Dublin and Belfast, the Capuchins worked tirelessly on the temperance mission. Despite the encouraging signs, it quickly became evident that the friars’ labours were not all that effective. At the end of a short mission, they would give the pledge to all comers and then move on to another parish the following week. Without any organizational support to follow-up, many of those who took the pledge soon fell away. It was clear that enthusiasm for temperance cooled when there was no permanent structure in place to continue the work. On returning to parishes that had previously been visited, the friars found only disappointing evidence of their missionary labours with no central register recording renewals of the pledge. It also appeared that many had rapidly discarded their temperance badges. Fr. Aloysius admitted in 1914 ‘that despite wonderful success attending our missionary zeal in every part of Ireland … the result in so far as it remains a permanent memorial of our work is not what it should be’. For a time, temperance societies and pledge-giving did flourish in locations where the Capuchins maintained a permanent foundation or residence. Many friars continued to work enthusiastically for the cause and priests on missions rarely neglected a sermon on the dangers of intemperance but there was to be no revival of a nationwide Capuchin-led total abstinence movement. By the early 1960s dramatic cultural and economic changes in Irish society resulted in a marked decline in popular enthusiasm for the temperance cause. Membership of total abstinence societies (such as the Sacred Thirst Sodalities, the League of Young Irish Crusaders and the Pioneers) collapsed. The steady decline in vocations also ensured that the Capuchins (in common with other religious orders) no longer had the personnel or resources to conduct the kind of extensive parish missions and retreats which were once a defining feature of their ministry in Ireland.

Collection Content

The collection includes records relating to parish missions and retreats preached by the Irish Capuchin Franciscan friars in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The collection also includes material relating to temperance missions given by the friars in response to a call from the Irish Catholic hierarchy to undertake a nationwide total abstinence campaign in 1905. Record series include lists of missions or retreats given by the Capuchins, local mission accounts and commentaries, temperance and pledge-taking records, correspondence, publicity material, printed ephemera and newspaper reports on missions preached by the friars.

Mission at Clonmany, Co. Donegal

Mission at Gurteen.