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The sub-series contains original manuscript letters of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC which were framed for devotional and exhibition purposes.

This section contains a large collection of mostly lease maps relating to properties held or associated with the Capuchin friars of Church Street, Dublin.

The subseries comprises a large collection of bound volumes containing photographic material, newspaper and magazine clippings, original historical records and ephemera compiled by Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap., the editor of ‘The Capuchin Annual’. The content of the volumes is extremely varied and, in many instances, includes rare original records reflecting Moynihan’s interest in Irish history, and particularly the revolutionary period. Some of the material complements content published in ‘The Capuchin Annual’ with several of the original photographs reproduced in various editions of the periodical. Other content (especially the clippings) is suggestive of Moynihan’s eclectic interest in Irish church history, Franciscan history, antiquities, literature, Gaelic culture, historiography, and the contemporary political and economic situation in Ireland especially during the Second World War.

A Capuchin chapel has stood on Church Street from at least 1720. The present-day Church of St. Mary of the Angels was designed James Joseph McCarthy (1817-1882) in a decorated Gothic style. McCarthy was also responsible for St. Saviour’s Dominican Church on Dominick Street in Dublin (also constructed in the fourteenth-century Gothic style), Mount Argus Church in Dublin, Maynooth College Chapel, and parish churches in Celbridge and Kilcock in County Kildare. The foundation stone for St. Mary of the Angels was laid by the Most Rev. Paul Cullen, Archbishop of Dublin, on 12 June 1868. The sermon for the occasion was preached by the celebrated Dominican preacher, Fr. T.A. Burke OP (1830-1883). The building was constructed under the supervision of the architect and was completed in 1881. The builders were Hammond of Drogheda. Fr. Daniel Patrick O’Reilly OSFC (1831-1894) was responsible for the raising of funds for the church’s construction and adornment. Two side-altars, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to St. Francis, were installed in 1876. They were the work of Farrell and Sons of North Gloucester Street Lower (now Seán McDermott Street). Their most famous works in Dublin are the monuments to Archbishop John Troy and Cardinal Cullen in the Pro-Cathedral on Marlborough Street, and the statues of Sir John Grey and William Smith O’Brien on O’Connell Street. This section includes records relating to the construction and maintenance of the Sacred Heart Chapel which was built as an aisle church in 1908-9. This chapel was later enclosed and converted into a large sacristy.

This sub-series contains plans, drawings and architectural or engineering specifications and blueprints for properties and premises acquired by the Capuchins in Kilkenny. The section includes many drawings for the extension to the Friary, designed by Samuel F. Hynes (1854-1931), and completed in 1897. It all also includes plans (by the architect Sylvester Bourke) for the extension to the Capuchin novitiate at the Kilkenny Friary which was completed in 1960.

The subseries contains letters to Capuchin friars in Kilkenny concerning missions, retreats, the appointment of confessors and notices of jubilees, anniversaries and deaths. Many of the letters are from the Provincial Minster to the guardians of the Friary and relate to the internal administration of the Order. The section includes a large register book (CA KK/1/3/1) which contains copies of numerous circular letters and memoranda from Ministers General and Provincial Ministers.

The subseries comprises a small collection of papers relating to James Joseph O’Kelly, a Fenian, journalist, and nationalist politician. Born in Dublin in 1842, O’Kelly was sent to London at a very young age to learn sculpting from his uncle John Lawlor (c.1820-1901). His three brothers were artists, including the distinguished painter Aloysius O’Kelly (1853-c.1941). He was sworn into the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1860 and joined the French Foreign Legion in 1863. He later distinguished himself as a journalist with the ‘New York Herald’. As the paper’s war correspondent, O’Kelly reported on the Cuban revolt against Spanish rule in 1873. Subsequently, O’Kelly accompanied the United States Army in its war against the Sioux and reported on the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, otherwise known as ‘Custer’s Last Stand’. Upon his return to Ireland, O’Kelly became a staunch supporter of Charles Stewart Parnell and the Home Rule movement. He represented the Roscommon constituency in the House of Commons as an MP from 1880 to 1916. O’Kelly was central to what was called the ‘New Departure’ which bound together the forces of land agitation, Fenianism, and parliamentary politics in the 1870s and 1880s. He died in London on 22 December 1916.

The small collection of papers listed here relate to O’Kelly’s efforts to garner support for an Irish brigade to fight on the French side during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). Like almost all Irish Catholics O’Kelly supported the French during the conflict. The section includes letters from O’Kelly’s acquaintances and fellow nationalists, including John O’Mahony (1815-1877), the founder of the Fenian Brotherhood, Patrick James Smyth (1823-1885), a Home Rule MP, and John O’Connor Power (1846-1919). The file also includes a letter from Fr. Patrick Lavelle (1825-1886), a Mayo-born priest and nationalist agitator. Despite success in forming an Irish ambulance unit for the French army, the sudden fall of Paris and the French defeat at the end of January 1871 effectively ended O’Kelly’s project to raise an Irish brigade. In February 1871 O’Kelly went to America and embarked upon his journalistic career.

The documents listed below were found within an envelope annotated ‘Fenians’. However, it is unclear how (and from whom) Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap. may have obtained O'Kelly's papers.