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Letter from Fr. Kevin OSF to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, seeking support for the building of the first local Franciscan Sisters’ convent at the Nsambya Mission in Kampala, Uganda. The appeal reads: ‘There is a great field of work to be done there, and we need the help of these native Sisters at all the missions so badly’.

Letter from Vincent Boulle, Linda Road, Claremont, Cape Province, to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, re the establishment of a Third Order Sodality in the Cape Province, South Africa. Reference is made to receptions into the Third Order made by Fr. Declan McFadden OFM Cap. (1901-1979) and Fr. Alban Cullen OFM Cap.

The file includes a letter from Fr. Albert to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Minister Provincial [Dec. 1922], referring to his time in the parish. He declares that the priests there have no interest in Ireland. ‘It doesn’t count here apparently’, and added, ‘unemployment [is] very serious. The “Daily News” urges the setting up “unemployment committees” …’. Later, Canon Palmer, Ilford, Essex, wrote to Fr. Peter Bowe OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, Church Street, Dublin, seeking to have Fr. Albert come over to cover for one of his clerical assistants who is unwell. On 11 Oct. 1923 Fr. Palmer wrote: ‘I would gladly give him all accommodation and he could help us. In strict confidence with yourself I wish to say at the same time that if there is any radical objection to his coming or having facilities. I would not presume to ask you at all’. With letter from Fr. Peter Bowe to Fr. Albert granting permission to ‘absent yourself from the Province for the benefit of your health, and to go to Very Rev. Canon Palmer of Ilford … to help in Parochial Work during the absence of the Senior Curate, until the end of February 1924’. The file also includes a letter from Fr. Sylvester Mulligan OFM Cap. to Fr. Peter Bowe OFM Cap., regarding the sending of Fr. Albert to Ilford, Esssex. Some political references are made by Fr. Albert in a letter to Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. (4 Mar. 1924). He wrote: ‘I am able to follow the events pretty well. Tis an awful pity that the being in power of the Labour Party is not availed of to scrap or modify the Treaty – a united body at home could now get anything – not that Labour is pro-Irish. It is not, but … because of the support on which it depends it could not turn down a united Ireland – or a large section demanding it’

Letters from Bishop Bernard Cornelius O’Riley (1868-1956), Vicar Apostolic of the Cape of Good Hope, Western District, and Fr. John Morris, editor of the Southern Cross, to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Fr. Kevin Moynihan OFM Cap., Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap., Provincial Ministers, and Fr. Kieran O’Callaghan OFM Cap., Provincial Secretary, regarding the prospects for establishing Irish Capuchin missionary foundations in the Athlone, Parow and Langa parishes in the Cape Province, South Africa. Fr. John Morris wrote: ‘There are only about thirty priests in the whole vicariate. This number includes three Jesuits, two Redemptorists, and some six Salesians. … Alas, there are no Franciscans in South Africa. You will therefore be real pioneers’ (16 May 1927). The Bishop wrote: ‘There are pagans and heathens in abundance in my Vicariate which covers some 17,000 sq. miles and I can assure there is endless scope in the Vicariate for the missionary efforts of your good Fathers’ (30 Mar. 1928). Later, he affirmed that the ‘poor people of “Athlone” (which is the name of the place of your first mission in South Africa) are nearly all coloured, a good simple lot, who have been working hard for some months past in their spare time to build with their own hands school-rooms’ (6 Dec. 1928). Reference is also made to the provision of a school for coloured children at Claremont (16 Feb. 1931) and to the financial state of the Vicariate (20 July 1932). The file includes a memorandum and agreement for sale from Bishop O’Riley to the Irish Capuchins of sites at Claremont, at Athlone, and at Parow (1 Nov. 1931), and a letter from Fr. John Morris requesting the Irish Capuchins supply a priest for the Philippi mission in the Vicariate (17 Mar. 1950).

Letters from Bishop Francis Henneman SAC (1882-1951), Vicar Apostolic of the Cape of Good Hope, Western District, later Vicar Apostolic of Cape Town, to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap. and Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap., Provincial Ministers. The letters refer to requests for the Irish Capuchins to take over missionary outstations including those at Matroosfontein and in the Welcome Estate.

Letters of Fr. Fintan Roche OFM Cap. (1898-1953) relating to his experiences as a missionary in Barotseland. The correspondents include Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap.; Fr. Kieran O’Callaghan OFM Cap.; Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister. Reference is made to the work of Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap. who is in ‘some God-forsaken native village about 9 days from here building a school [and to] Fr. Phelim [O’Shea OFM Cap.] and Fr. Seraphin [Nesdale OFM Cap.] in Loanja’. (11 Dec. 1933). Later, Fr. Fintan refers to the establishment of further mission stations around Mongu and ‘other remote centres … where we won’t conflict with already established Protestant missions’. He also affirmed that ‘Barotseland is not “virgin soil”, it is chuck full of Protestant Missions, some of them 30 days by river from Livingstone’ (20 June 1934).

Letters from Fr. Jarlath Gough OFM Cap. (1902-1983) to Fr. Kieran O’Callaghan OFM Cap. and Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, describing his arrival in South Africa and his impressions of the ‘truly astonishing’ work being done by the Irish Capuchins in Northern Rhodesia.

Letters of Fr. Seraphin Nesdale OFM Cap. (1897-1980). The correspondents include Fr. Kieran O’Callaghan OFM Cap.; Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister. Reference is made to the activities of Fr. Declan McFadden OFM Cap., Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap., Fr. Oliver O’Hanlon OFM Cap. and Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap. The subjects include efforts to establish missionary stations in Northern Rhodesia and to the difficulties and frustrations with on-going work in the parishes of Parow and Athlone in Cape Town, South Africa. Fr. Seraphin also refers to the need for mass stipends and funds and to the physical hardships in adjusting to the African climate, customs and languages. He recounts Fr. Killian Flynn’s efforts to ‘discover which is the language most commonly used in our territory around Livingstone’ (25 Dec. 1931).

Letters from Fr. Sylvester Mulligan OFM Cap., General Definitor, to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, re the canonical establishment of the Irish Capuchin mission in Northern Rhodesia. He also asks for a list of potential candidates for the position of Regular Superior.

Letters of Fr. Agathangelus Herlihy OFM Cap. (1911-1968) referring to his early experiences as a missionary in Northern Rhodesia and later to developments in South Africa (particularly in the Capuchin Vicariate established in Cape Town in 1949). Correspondents include Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister; Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap., Provincial Minister; Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap., Provincial Secretary.