‘Charles Letts’s Small Octavo Diary and Note Book’. A daily record diary of Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap., Church Street, Dublin. Routine entries record the ministries and day-to-day activities of various Capuchin friars. The diary also chronicles the detention and trial of Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. An entry on 5 Jan. 1921 reads: ‘Fr. Dominic OSFC notified today in Kilmainham Prison of his approaching Court Martial and told to see his solicitor’. Other entries in the diary refer to the activities of British military forces in the wake of an upsurge in Republican attacks. On 16 Jan. Fr. Stanislaus wrote ‘The front portion of our Church and whole street closed with barbed wire. … This was done in early hours of morning. Many unable to go to Mass to day. House to house search by military. Show’s the respect of the English government for the Lord’s day’. Fr. Dominic’s transfer ‘under heavy escort’ to Kingstown for the boat to take him to Wormwood Scrubs Prison was recorded on 31 Jan. 1921. On 13 February, Fr. Stanislaus noted that the Capuchin Friary in Kilkenny was ‘raided by the Black and Tans in their usual rough fashion’. A loose page in the file summarizes some key events in 1921. Reference is made to the court martial in Kilmainham Jail of Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. Other events mentioned in the 1921 summary include military raids in Kilkenny (13 February), the imposition of a curfew order (4 March), the executions of the Irish Volunteers (Thomas Bryan, Frank Flood, Bernard Ryan, Patrick Doyle, Patrick Moran and Thomas Whelan) in Mountjoy Jail on 14 March, the death of Archbishop William Walsh (9 April), and the burning of the Custom House in Dublin following an attack by the Irish Republican Army (25 May).
Newspaper cuttings book compiled and annotated by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. Printed stamp on inside front cover: ‘Franciscan Capuchin Library, Church Street, Dublin’. The pages have been numbered by Fr. Stanislaus. The cuttings book includes: 53-54: Reports on the raid by British forces on the Capuchin Friary, Church Street, and the subsequent detention of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. and Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. 'Dublin Evening Mail', 18 Dec. 1920; 'Evening Telegraph', 17 Dec. 1920. Includes some cuttings of photographic prints of Fr. Dominic. 55-66: Reports on the court martial and conviction of Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. Jan.-Mar. 1921. 67: Reports in the 'Cork Examiner' referring to the ministries of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap.,and other Capuchin priests to republicans. 7-9 Nov. 1923. 119-120: Articles referring to the trial and sentencing of Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. 'Evening Herald', 10 Jan. 1921; 'Irish Catholic', 5 Feb. 1921.
Letter from Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap., Church Street, to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap., guardian, enclosing a copy of the mission list and querying an item in the accounts furnished from Capuchin General Curia in Rome.
Manuscript Memoranda re books held in the Kilkenny Friary Library. The notes were probably compiled by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. and Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. Particular reference is made to annotations, marginalia and inscriptions found on the frontispieces of the volumes. Some of the memoranda are very fragmentary and incomplete. Many of the books referred to in the memoranda are now extant in the Provincial Archives. See CA KK/10 for a listing of some these texts from the Kilkenny Friary Library.
