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List of deeds and leases (compiled by Fr. Angelus Healy OSFC) relating to property held by the Capuchins in Cork. The list includes deeds dating from 2 Nov. 1832 (see CA HT/2/1/2/10) to 8 Mar. 1880 (see CA HT/2/1/2/23).

List compiled by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. of the Capuchin community in the time of Fr. Theobald Mathew’s guardianship of the Cork house. Those named are: Fr. Francis O’Donovan OSFC; Fr. Augustine Burke OSFC; Fr. Patrick Mooney OSFC; Fr. Angelus Power OSFC; Fr. Louis O’Riordan OSFC; Fr. Vincent MacLeod OSFC; Fr. George Brennan OSFC; Fr. Aloysius O’Connell OSFC; Fr. Laurence O’Flynn OSFC; Fr. Joseph O’Reilly OSFC; Fr. Louis Connolly OSFC. Undated, but the list probably relates to 1840-50.

Lists of friars resident in Capuchin foundations in Ireland. The volume was compiled by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap.
It includes the names of friars resident in:
Holy Trinity Friary, Cork:
1885, 1887, 1893, 1901, 1904, 1910, 1913, 1919, 1922, 1925, 1928.
The volume also contains similar lists in respect of the following foundations:
St. Mary of the Angels, Church Street, Dublin:
1885, 1893, 1895, 1901, 1904, 1913, 1919, 1922, 1925, 1928, 1931
Capuchin Friary, Kilkenny:
1885, 1893, 1907, 1913, 1919, 1922, 1925, 1928
Capuchin Friary, Rochestown, County Cork:
1885, 1893, 1901, 1910, 1913, 1919, 1922, 1925, 1928
St. Bonaventure’s Hostel, Cork:
1919, 1922, 1925, 1928.
An index is given at the front of the volume.

Lectures on the history of the Irish Capuchin missions (primarily in Africa) compiled by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. The talks were likely prepared for promotional and educational purposes. They include copy documents including a letter from the Most Rev. Bernard O’Riley, Vicar Apostolic of Cape Town, to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, requesting a Capuchin foundation in his diocese (12 May 1927), and copy letters from Archbishop Carlo Salotti, Secretary of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, to Fr. Melchor a Benisa OFM Cap., Minister General, re the Irish Capuchin mission in Barotseland, Northern Rhodesia (Jan. 1931).

A history of the Capuchin novitiate in Kilkenny, 1875-77 by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. Referring to the decision to found a novitiate, Fr. Angelus wrote ‘In the month of May 1875 a visitation of the Irish Custody was made by Very Rev. Arsenius, the Provincial of Paris Province. At the conclusion of the visitation he called the Custos [Fr. Patrick O’Reilly OSFC] and his two assistants [Fr. Edward Tommins OSFC and Fr. Aloysius Hennessy OSFC]. They met in our Convent at Dublin on May 25th. At this meeting it was decided to apply to our Superiors General in Rome, for permission to establish a Novitiate for the Irish Custody’. The novitiate was transferred from Kilkenny to Rochestown on 14 Feb. 1877. Fr. Angelus concludes by noting that the ‘account of the Novitiate in Rochestown from 1877 to 1886, when it returned to Kilkenny may be given in another paper’.

History of the Capuchin Friary, Father Mathew Quay, Cork, possibly compiled by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. The notes are described as incomplete, requiring ‘supplementation and possibly correction’. The first section deals briefly with the history of the Capuchins in Cork from 1620 to 1832. At page six Fr. Angelus traces the efforts made by the Capuchins to build a friary adjacent to Holy Trinity Church. This history is divided into distinct sections:
I. 1855: Very. Rev. Vincent McLeod OSFC, guardian.
II. 1866: Very. Rev. Edward Tommins OSFC, guardian. Includes an article from the Cork Examiner (24 Sept. 1866) referring to the laying of the foundation stone of a new friary. This project was later abandoned.
III. 18[ ]: Very Rev. Father Cherubin [Mazzini] OSFC, guardian.
IV. 1877: Very Rev. Father Thomas Sheehy OSFC, guardian.
V. 1878: Very Rev. Father Albert Mitchell OSFC, Custos-Provincial.
VI. 1879-1884: Very Rev. Father Simeon Gaudillot OSFC, Commissary General; Very Rev. Seraphim Van Damme of Bruges, Provincial Minister. (Includes an account from the Cork Examiner (10 June 1884) re the opening of the new Capuchin Friary.
Addenda: Historical notes re the Irish Capuchin Custody, the ‘dismemberment of the Irish Province’, the transfer of the Cork and Rochestown Friaries to the English Capuchin Province, and the re-creation in 1885 of the Irish Capuchin Province.
The final page consists of an incomplete obituary list of Cork Capuchins. The file includes copy typescript extracts from the volume.

The collection comprises over 300 original glass plate negatives and lantern slides. Prior to the invention of cellulose nitrate film in 1903, photographic emulsions were made on glass supports. These glass supports are typically referred to as glass plate negatives. The term ‘glass plate negative’ refers to two separate formats: the collodion wet plate negative and the gelatin dry plate. Both formats consist of a light sensitive emulsion that is fixed to the glass plate base with a binder. This form of photographic process largely faded from the consumer market in the early years of the twentieth century, as more convenient and less fragile films were introduced. Despite the impracticalities of the medium, glass negative plates were generally considered superior to cellulose nitrate film for high-quality imaging because they were extremely stable and less likely to bend or distort.

The collection also includes several lantern slides. Lantern slides were constructed from a base piece of glass, with the emulsion (carrying the photo or print) on it, then a matte over that, and then a top piece of cover glass. They were then taped all the way around to keep the pieces together and to keep dust out. Occasionally, colour was added by hand, tinting the images (these lantern slides were created before the invention of colour film). The slides were then projected onto a screen using a bespoke lantern slide projector. Lantern glass slides were used by some public speakers until the mid-twentieth century, when they were eclipsed by more economical and practical 35mm colour slides popularised by Kodachrome. Finally, the collection also includes some original glass stereo plates. Stereo cameras used a single glass plate negative to capture images. Prints from these negatives were intended to be looked at with a special viewer called a stereoscope, which created a rudimentary three-dimensional image.

Provenance and Collection Content

Precise information on the provenance of the collection is lacking. The plates were retrieved from a worn leather suitcase bearing the initials ‘F.A.’ which almost certainly refers to Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. (1875-1953). Although Fr. Angelus never considered himself an academic historian, he researched assiduously and transcribed many original documents relating to the history of the Irish Capuchins. His ‘Pages from the Story of the Irish Capuchins’ was published in 1915 to mark the tercentenary of the arrival of the first Capuchin friar in Ireland. It is highly likely that Fr. Angelus was responsible for assembling this glass plate photographic collection and that many of the lantern slides were created specifically for his use.

The image content of the glass plate collection is eclectic and varied. Only a relatively small number of the images are dated but it can be inferred that most of the photographs date to the first or second decade of the twentieth century. Many of the plates show images of scenes around the Capuchin Friary in Rochestown in County Cork. The Capuchins established a community in Rochestown, situated about five miles from Cork city, in 1873. The Irish friars had founded a Seraphic School in 1884 with the primary aim of training young religious. This school originally operated along the lines of a novitiate for students who aspired to join the Capuchin Franciscan Order. In 1887, this school was transferred from Kilkenny to Rochestown. The collection includes many images of novice friars and students attached to the Rochestown house. In addition to photographs of the friary itself, local landmarks, buildings, and scenic locations in the environs of Rochestown feature prominently in some of the images. Several photographs showing other Irish Capuchin houses and foundations such as the Church of St. Francis in Kilkenny are also extant in the collection. The collection also includes some rare images of the Reek Sunday pilgrimage to the summit of Croagh Patrick in County Mayo (CA-PH-1-49-55). The 764-metre-high mountain is traditionally climbed by pilgrims on the last Sunday in July. These images were likely assembled by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap., who was known as the ‘Guardian of the Reek’ in honour of his long association with the pilgrimage. His association with Croagh Patrick lasted from 1906 to 1949, during which he climbed the mountain forty-two times missing only two years, in 1919 due to a railway strike, and in 1922 due to the Civil War.

A seemingly separate series of lantern slides relating to the life and career of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC (1790-1856), a famed nineteenth century temperance campaigner and Capuchin friar, were also deposited in the collection. It is very probable that these slides were used as illustrative aids by the Capuchins for public talks and auditorium lectures on Fr. Mathew’s campaign against intoxicating liquor. Temperance activity was revived in 1905 when the Irish Catholic hierarchy invited the Capuchins to preach a National Crusade. This revival initially elicited widespread public enthusiasm and by 1912 the Capuchins had administered over a million pledges throughout the country. The lanterns slides were, in all probability, used in this campaign. Finally, the collection also includes images of seventeenth century manuscripts and photographs of other original records pertaining to the lives and ministries of several early Irish Capuchins. These were probably acquired by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. and Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. (1876-1965), another prominent Irish Capuchin historian, for research purposes.

Copybooks containing ‘extracts of Irish Capuchin interest copied from the files of '"The Kilkenny Journal"' by Fr. Angelus Healy OSFC. First published as “the Lenister Journal”, 24th Jan. 1767, and with present title [from] 17th March 1830’. The volumes contain extracts from articles referring to Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC and his temperance campaign, Fr. Peter Joseph Mulligan OSFC and to other members of the Order ministering in the city. The copybooks are organised by date:
• 20 Mar. 1844-14 Sept. 1844
• 14 Sept. 1844-27 Nov. 1844
• May 1846-Oct. 1846
• 1 Dec. 1849-Mar. 1850
• Mar. 1851-Feb. 1852
• Mar. 1852-Oct. 1852
• Mar. 1854-Jan. 1861
• Mar. 1856-Dec. 1856

Extracts by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. from the Patent Rolls of James I (1611) and the Civil Survey (1654) re the occupiers of lands around Ards in County Donegal.

Transcripts and notes compiled by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. from mass registers of the Cork community. The notes mainly refer to personnel matters giving the names of community members, the dates of transfers, details of chapter meetings and the appointment of guardians. The title page reads: ‘This book contains notes made from an examination of the mass register of the Cork house. I mean the register signed by the Fathers of the masses discharged by the community. The examination extended over the books from 1889 to December 1914, a period of 25 years. It gives the names of the different Fathers in the community, superiors, dates of visitations and transfers from the community. I also examined house books from July 1883 to April 1885 to 1887 during which Fr. Englebert of Huissen OSFC was guardian. He used a special ledger of his own, as appears from an entry made by Fr. Matthew O’Connor OSFC who succeeded him in office’.