Letter from Fr. Albert Bibby [to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap.] referring to arrangements for sailing on the 'Republic' steamship from Cobh on 20 June. He also refers to his meeting in Goresbridge with Angela Cook, ‘a niece of Mrs McCurtain’, who is keen on joining a congregation of nuns. He concludes by stating that he has had a letter from Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. who is in ill-health.
Letter from Br. Colmcille Cregan OFM Cap. to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. referring to Fr. Albert Bibby's worsening condition in Santa Barbara Hospital. He writes that Father Albert ‘has no desire to die, as he had [a] big wish to do something for Saint Agnes [Mission Santa Inés], but God has ordained otherwise. Anyway, he set the Mission going and had got many interested in the restoration work’. He also refers to Fr. Dominic O'Connor's presence which has delighted Albert and that the latter expresses no bitterness towards his brethren at home. He also affirms that it is Bibby's wish to be buried in Ireland and to make representations to the Provincial Minister and the relevant authorities in Ireland to ensure that this happens.
A clipping of an article reprinting a copy of Fr. Albert Bibby’s final letter to Éamon de Valera pledging his ‘unchanged and unchangeable, and uncompromising’ allegiance to the Republic and to you, its President’. He argues that ‘in the movement for the independence of Ireland I have always endeavoured to remember that I was a Capuchin Priest’. The volume also includes a covering letter from Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. to de Valera enclosing Bibby’ letter and referring to the latter’s ailing health. O’Connor concludes by stating that it is ‘better to die in agony than for freedom than live in luxurious freedom’. (Volume page 116).
A photograph of Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. (right) and Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. (second from left) with two unidentified republicans in Freemasons’ Hall (or ‘Masonic Hall’) on Molesworth Street in Dublin. The two Capuchin friars visited the Hall following its seizure by anti-Treaty republicans in April 1922.
A photographic print of Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. among a large crowed at a public event. No information in relation to either the date or the location of the event is given, but it was likely in Cork. The central figure addressing the crowd may be Tomás MacCurtain, Lord Mayor of Cork.
An image of Tomás MacCurtain (seated on the tractor) with a nationalist pipe and drum band at a demonstration of a Fordson tractor (manufactured locally by the American Ford Motor Company) in Cork in 1920. Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. is among the crowd at the event.
Memoriam card for Fr. Dominic O’Connor. The card notes his role as chaplain to the Lord Mayors of Cork, Tomás Mac Curtain, and Terence MacSwiney. It also states that he died ‘in exile for the Republic of Ireland at Bend, Oregon, USA, 17th October 1935’.
