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Letters from the Most Rev. Patrick O’Donnell (1856-1927), Bishop of Raphoe, to Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Provincial Minister, re the progress of temperance work in County Donegal.

Letters to Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Provincial Minster, requesting parish missions and retreats. The letters are mostly from local clerics. Some of the letters provide information on religious practices and temperance activities in the locality. The file includes letters requesting missions in Louisburgh (Mayo), Clare Island (Mayo), Westport (Mayo), Carrick-on-Suir (Tipperary), Newport (Mayo), Clonmel (Tipperary), Waterford and Cahir (Tipperary). The file also includes some copy replies from Fr. Paul.

• Flier from the Father Mathew Centenary Committee seeking subscriptions for a fund for the completion of Holy Trinity (Father Mathew) Memorial Church, Cork. The flier includes a list of subscribers and the amounts given to the fund. March 1889. Printed, 1 p.
• Copy programme for a ‘Grand Vocal and Instrumental Concert in aid of the Father Mathew Centenary Celebration’ performed by the Cork Amateur Orchestral Society in the Opera House, Cork, on 9 Oct. 1889. The programme includes a recital of the Centenary Ode by Fr. Michael O’Flynn, CC, Saint Peter and Saint Paul’s Church, Cork. Copy print, 1 p.
• Copy obedience to Br. Masseo Hyland OSFC (d. 18 May 1908) allowing him to travel to the United States with Fr. Mathew O’Connor OSFC to receive subscriptions for the celebrations of the centenary of the Father Theobald Mathew and the completing of the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Cork …’. The obedience is signed by Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Provincial Minister, and is dated at Rochestown, 18 Oct. 1889. With a copy of a similar obedience (in Latin) to Fr. Mathew O’Connor OSFC. Manuscript, 3 pp.
• Notes re the Fr. Mathew ephemera and relics used in the Centenary Exhibition in 1890. The exhibited items included:
A banner painted by a sister from the South Presentation Convent.
A lock of Father Mathew’s hair which was loaned by Frank Driscoll, Garrick Street, Covent Garden, London. It is affirmed that ‘it was given to a Mr Regan, a devoted follower of Fr. Mathew, a few months before he died’.
A pair of heavy silver spectacles.
Temperance medals and cards including ‘the first medal sold in Cork by Fr. Mathew – sold to Wm. Kelly, and sent in by his daughter, Mrs Daly of Evergreen Street’.
A bible lent by Mrs Donegan, Monkstown. It had been given to Fr. Mathew by Mrs Donegan’s Aunt.
The file also includes notes by Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap. on the wider centenary celebrations of Fr. Mathew’s birth in 1890. Many of the extracts appear to have been taken from the 'Cork Examiner'. Manuscript and typescript, 9 pp.
• Copybook containing extracts from 'The Standard' (14 Oct. 1889) and the 'Freeman’s Journal' (25 Oct. 1889) reporting on a meeting of a committee organising the commemorations of the centenary of the birth of Fr. Mathew. The article in 'The Standard' reads ‘As a rule the inhabitants of the sister island find it anything but easy to discover a common ground on which they may meet each other without fear of dispute. The names of famous Irishmen are usually rather emblems of discord than national rallying cries. According as the great men in Irish history were Protestant or Catholic loyal or disloyal men of the North, or men of the South so did they receive the sympathy or dislike of the various sections of the population. Hardly one of them is capable of uniting even for a moment the sentiment of the whole country … . The zealous and single-hearted priest whom the Irish race with its love of picturesque phraseology knows as the “Apostle of Temperance” is one of the very few persons whom the whole country agrees to honour. That Father Mathew was a brave and good man, and that he did his best to succour and to raise the peasantry is a fact which is never disputed in Ireland’. Extensive reference is also made to the plan to erect a statue on O’Connell Street commemorating the temperance campaigner. Manuscript, 23 pp.
• 'The Father Mathew Centenary / by John Francis Maguire / 1890' (Cork: Irish Temperance League, 1890). Printed, 8 pp.
• An article from 'The Shamrock' on the unveiling of the statue of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC on O’Connell Street, Dublin. It reads ‘Father Mathew needs no statue to perpetuate his memory … but it is only proper that in the Capital of his Nation a grateful people should testify by some public memorial their recognition of his services, and should set his image in their streets as a witness of their gratitude. … Father Mathew would never have been suspected of being a clergyman from his dress. He wore no clerical coat or hat. He dressed like a gentleman of the time in a frock coat, hessian boots and a tall hat. Yet it was as a Capuchin Friar he did his marvellous work, and it is quite appropriate that in the statue which has been just unveiled in Dublin he should appear in the habit of that order. The statue is a fine work of art. It is by Irish hand, and the sculptor, to whom we offer our congratulations, is Miss Mary Redmond’. The article includes a sketch of the statue and of Thomastown Castle, Fr. Mathew’s birthplace. Feb. 1893. Printed, 4 pp.

Abstract of title of Mary Craven, widow and administratrix of John Kelly, late of 55 Church Street, broker, to two houses numbered 2 and 3 situated on Thunder’s Court at the rear of Church Street. The abstract commences with a recital of a lease (dated 24 June 1858) by Michael Clarke to John Kelly of the said premises for 93 years at the yearly rent of 2d and in consideration of £40 (See CA CS/2/2/6/1). The abstract concludes with a reference to letters of administration granted under Probate (18 Dec. 1883) to Mary Craven (formerly Mary Kelly of 141 Church Street) for the administration of the personal estate and effects of the said John Kelly (d. 18 Jan. 1865). The file also includes:
• Letters of administration of John Kelly (18 Dec. 1883).
• Assignment by Mary Craven (widow of John Kelly) to Fr. Paul Neary OSFC and other Capuchin friars of the aformentioned premises in consideration of £225. (16 Jan. 1889).
• Letters of administration granted to Elizabeth Kelly, a daughter of Mary Craven (died 5 Mar. 1889) for the administration of her mother’s personal estate and effects. 22 Mar. 1889.
• Draft statement of account given by Elizabeth Kelly of the personal estate and debts of her late mother Mary Craven. The account notes that the amount of money owing from the estate was £107 17s 3d. 10 Apr. 1889.
See also CA CS/2/2/6/5.

Letters to Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Provincial Minster, requesting parish missions (and retreats. The file includes letters requesting missions in Belfast, Clare Island (Mayo), Gowna (Cavan), Rathkeale (Limerick), Carrick-on-Suir (Tipperary), Scotstown (Monaghan), Longford, Fermoy (Cork), Clonmel (Tipperary) and Youghal (Cork).

Letters of the Most Rev. William J. Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin, to the Provincial Ministers of the Irish Capuchins (Fr. Matthew O’Connor OSFC, Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC and Fr. Paul Neary OSFC) regarding the establishment and functioning of the Catholic Boys’ Brigade in Dublin. Walsh wrote to Fr. Matthew on 2 May 1895: ‘I should be glad if you could see your way to letting one of your fathers take it in hand. Of course, the rules should be approved in detail so that at any time we could withdraw our connection and our sanction if things were going wrong’. He later averred (27 May 1895) that the ‘organisation ought to be a useful one, if it is well looked after, and good provision for this seems to be made in the Rules’. He later referred (21 June 1895) to an article in the draft rules of Brigade: ‘In par. X, it seems to be left open to Protestants to have a voice in the management. This, of course, would not work in a Catholic organisation for Catholic Boys only’. On 27 Feb. 1900 Walsh wrote: ‘Our religious communities in Dublin are actively engaged in carrying on many good works, works which undoubtedly could not be carried on at all but for them. But I think it is generally understood that as I am exceedingly careful to avoid anything like interference, or bordering on interference, in the affairs of religious bodies, it is far better that I should not be in any connected with their good works’. He later referred to the Capuchin friars’ decision to discontinue work with the Brigade: ‘I observe there is a special point insisted on by the critics of the Boys’ Brigades – that such Brigades are really training schools for the army. On the whole, it may be just as well that your good fathers have got clear of the work’ (15 June 1902). In 1904, Walsh affirmed that he ‘had always remained aloof the organisation’ and claimed that it was not possible for him to interfere ‘in any way [with] the question as to the holding of the trust property’.

Letters to Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Provincial Minster, requesting parish missions and retreats. The file includes letters requesting missions in Waterford, Carlingford (Louth), Clonmel (Tipperary), Carrick-on-Shannon (Leitrim), Rathmines (Dublin). The file also includes requests for missions for Irish emigrant communities in Glasgow and Sunderland.

Legal documents arising out of efforts to establish title to the properties known as nos. 138-140 Church Street. The properties consisted of three dwelling houses fronting onto Church Street and four houses in Willis’s Court. In 1886, Fr. Nicholas Murphy OSFC and other Capuchin friars agreed to purchase John Coyle’s interest in a lease of the properties dated 28 May 1856 (See CA CS/2/2/3/2). The Capuchins also intimated an interest in purchasing the interest of John Coyle’s landlord, Frederick Kennedy, whose title derived from a lease of the premises for lives renewable forever at the yearly rent of £27 6s 0 (late Irish currency) dated 2 Oct. 1783. It was resolved that Coyle would take a conveyance of the properties from Kennedy (See CA CS/2/2/3/10) and that Coyle would then convey the interests in both leases to the Capuchins. The transfer of the properties was rendered more difficult by the loss of the original lease of 2 Oct. 1783 and by the absence of registered copies of Kennedy’s renewal leases of 28 Dec. 1815 and 13 June 1856 (See CA CS/2/2/3/1). The file includes legal documents generated in order to prove title to the interests held by both Coyle and Kennedy and to facilitate the transfer of the premises to the Capuchin friars. The documents include:
• Copy memorial of a lease (2 Oct. 1783) from George Kiernan, apothecary, and others to Robert Shutter, merchant, of the above-noted properties for lives renewable forever at the yearly rent of £27 6s 0. Copy made at the Registry of Deeds, 10 Mar. 1883.
• Assignment from John Hanrick and Joseph Bolger of the aforementioned premises to John Coyle in consideration of the sum £220. 2 Apr. 1883. With copies of said assignment.
• Abstract of title of Maryanne O'Brien and the trustees of the will of the late James Willis to houses and premises at 138-140 Church Street with four houses at the rear of 139 Church Street in Willis's Court. 20 Apr. 1883.
• Copy will and probate of John Willis, 139 Church Street, Dublin, 4 Feb. 1865. Willis died on 24 Feb. 1865. The copy will was compiled by Frederick Kennedy, 4 Lower Ormond Quay, c.1886.
• Instructions for Philip White, barrister, to advise on title occasioned by the transfer of nos. 138-140 by John Coyle to Fr. Nicholas Murphy and other Capuchin friars. The instructions refer to the intention of the Capuchin friars to demolish the four houses in Willis’s Court and to sell or demise the three houses fronting onto Church Street for a period of twenty years. White wrote: ‘On the whole I would, having regard to the fact that no other premises will suit the querists’ [the Capuchins] purpose, and to the fact that querists have had the risk of being restrained from pulling down the houses thoroughly explained to them and that they are prepared to run the risk, accept the title shown both to Coyle’s and Kennedy’s interests’. 23 Nov. 1886.
• Abstract of title of Frederick Kennedy to premises on Church Street. The abstract commences with a recital of the lease of George Kiernan and others to Robert Joseph Shutter of a ‘messuage, tenement and dwelling house … situate on the west side of Church Street ... containing in the front to the said street from north to south 55 feet, in the rear 22 feet, and in depth from east to west 185 feet … situate in the parish of St. Michan, for lives renewable forever at the yearly rent of £27 6s 0d. The abstract concludes with reference to an assignment of said premises by Henry Smith to Frederick Kennedy (12 Mar. 1883). The document was prepared by Frederick Kennedy in c.Nov. 1886.
• Conveyance and assignment by John Coyle to Fr. Nicholas Murphy OSFC and others of the aforementioned properties. In consideration of £710. 14 Jan. 1887.
• Conveyance by Fr. Nicholas Murphy OSFC and others to Fr. Paul Neary OSFC and others of the aforementioned properties on Church Street to hold in fee simple. (17 Mar. 1888).

Subscription book containing a list of subscribers and guarantors for the fund for paying off the debt incurred on the construction of St. Mary of the Angels. Entries are listed under name, address and amount subscribed. Some entries are listed under the title of: ‘persons visited by Fr. Paul [Neary] and companion for meeting on 27 Feb. 1899’. A newspaper cutting from the 'Freeman’s Journal' [c.8 Mar. 1897] is pasted onto the reverse of the first leaf. The cutting contains a list of contributors towards the aforementioned fund. A monthly mass register record is extant on five pages at the end of the volume. Several manuscript and newspaper cutting inserts have been removed from the volume and placed in CA CS/2/3/7-8.

Letters from Mrs Poer Shee [var. Power Shee], Kilmacthomas, County Waterford, to Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Vicar Provincial, regarding negotiations for the handing over of the Archer Chalice to the Capuchins in Kilkenny. The chalice was originally presented by Walter Archer to the Chapel of the Blessed Mary in the Monastery of St. Francis in Kilkenny in 1606. Fr. Angelus Healy OSFC wrote to Fr. Paul explaining that Miss Poer Shee ‘will hand over the chalice to us in Kilkenny to be held until the Franciscans would get a foundation there, when she would wish it to go there (as being more in accordance with its origins) … . She gives the chalice quite freely and generously’. It is unclear from the correspondence if the agreement handing over the chalice to the Capuchins was ever fulfilled. With a sketch of the chalice. The file also includes a letter from [J.S. Gill], St. Mary’s, Lanark, Scotland, to Fr. Angelus regarding an ‘OFM Chalice’ with a Kilkenny connection dating to 1632 (the letter is dated 20 Feb. 1936), and a clipping from 'The Father Mathew Record', Vol. 39, No. 6 (June 1945) of an article titled ‘The Story of a Chalice’ by Colin Johnston Cobb. The said chalice is inscribed ‘CAPVCINORUM LOCI KILKENIAE’. See also CA KK/8/15.