Letter from Sr Bernard Heuston OP (1889-1960), Dominican Convent, Galway (a sister of Seán Heuston), to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. thanking him for his remembrance of her brother as the first anniversary of his execution approaches. The letter reads:
‘Dear Fr. Albert Thank you for your long & interesting letter & above all for your promise of the Mass for poor Jack on Tuesday. I knew that you would not forget him. I can scarcely believe that that awful time is only a year ago & yet in another sense it seems decades away! There seems to be a great many anniversary masses, indeed they seem to have been kept up during the year & I am sure the dear dead ones will obtain many graces for the land they gave their lives for. The number of conversions certainly proves the excellent religious foundation of their patriotism. I think it does my mother good to have a little chat about Jack sometimes – you sympathise with the cause for which he dies. I am hoping that when the sad memories of the anniversary have faded somewhat, she will brighten up again – the wound of such a loss will never completely heal. My mother sent me a list of anniversary Masses – certainly they have got more prayer than most people can dare to expect. The spirit still lives on. A letter from the Archbishop of Adelaide [the Dublin-born Dominican friar, Robert Spence, 1860-1934] came here yesterday. It was written in or about St. Patrick’s Day & he said that all the meetings held in honour of the Feast were unanimous in their condemnation of the treatment meted out to the Irish by the English government – feeling is strong there. You must be very pleased by the evident thoroughness of the Countess’ [Markievicz’s] conversion. I shall pray to get prayers for her & for all the others in whom you are interested. Should you be in the west any time during the summer I am sure you will call. I shall be very pleased to see you. With all kind regards & grateful thanks, Very sincerely yours Sr Bernard’
Letter from Sinéad de Valera, Greystones, County Wicklow, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. referring to the suggestion of holding a ‘national novena to the Sacred Heart’ for the welfare of Ireland.
Letter from Julia Breen, Upper Church Street, Tipperary, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., thanking him for all ‘the trouble you took with our prisoners while they were suffering in Mountjoy, it was prayer and the masses for our prisoners that saved them from death’. With an annotation in Fr. Albert’s hand on the first page: ‘Letter from Commandant Breen’s (I.R.A.) mother. He was on hunger strike at Mountjoy Jail and it was there I met his mother’
Letter from Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., St. Benedict’s Rectory, 320 West 53D Street, New York, to Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap., Church St., Dublin, referring to his arrival in New York and his meeting with Fr. Solanus Casey OFM Cap. He also refers to a letter or photograph of letter ‘written by P.H. P[earse] to Joe Pl[unkett], 1916, and which I gave you to keep. I promised a copy of it to Mrs Tom Clarke … I would be grateful if can would, at your convenience, make a copy of it and send it to her or to Miss Daly, Bakery, Sarsfield St., Limerick for her’.
Letter from Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap., Church Street, Dublin, stating that he is ‘getting weaker gradually – the end is apparently not far off’. Fr. Albert admits that the presence of Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. is a great comfort as his death approaches.
Telegram from Fr. Dominic O'Connor OFM Cap. to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. regarding the death of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. in St. Francis Hospital in Santa Barbara, California. The text reads 'Albert with martyrs of the Gael / peaceful happy death / Dominic'.
This section includes letters to Capuchins referring to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., his ministry to prominent republicans, his exile in the United States, and his death. The section includes a copy of a letter written by Fr. Albert to Fr. Juan Antonio de San Juan en Persiceto OFM Cap., Minister General of the Capuchin Franciscans, enclosing a vigorous statement defending his conduct during the revolutionary period and, in particular, his ministering to imprisoned republicans (CA IR-1-1-2-4-6).
Letter from Sister M. Gonzaga, Loreto Convent, Fermoy, County Cork, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., expressing her hope that the ‘brave Sinn Feiner you are anxious about is safe now’. She also declares that ‘1916 is a year marked in letters of blood, the heart blood of our best and noblest’. She concludes by asking for a prayer for ‘the brave boys you helped to die’.
Invitation card to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. for a reception for released prisoners of war organised by the Irish National Aid and Volunteers’ Dependents Fund at the Mansion House, Dublin.
