Notes compiled by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. and Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. on the history of Ards House and its acquisition by the Capuchin friars in 1930. Extensive reference is made to the previous occupiers of the estate: 'The Sampsons, the Wrays, the Stewarts, one of whom was married to Lady Isabella Toler, granddaughter of the notorious Lord Norbury are gone, and the Capuchin Fathers are in their ancient home. In the graveyard at Clondahorky, can be seen the grave of the second wife of the first Wray of Ards, and in the grounds of Ards, some trees recall the birthdays of members of the Stewart family. To the Capuchins however, a stronger appeal is made by a lonely tomb in the graveyard around Doe Castle, the last resting place of a Franciscan Friar, Rev. Father Dominick Curden “who departed this life August ye 17th. 1809, aged 85 yrs”'. The file includes a newspaper cutting of a poem titled ‘On the return of the Brown-Robed Friars to Donegal’ by Bernard A. Furey.
Copy letters of Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. to John J. Sharkey, Catholic Total Abstinence Union, Boston, referring to the cause of Fr. Mathew. Fr. Stanislaus wrote ‘No efforts either privately or publicly have been made by any member of our Order to direct further interest in the intercession of Fr. Mathew, and yet the devotion to him is as abiding in the hearts of the people – especially in Cork – as it was the in the years that followed his death’.
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.
Letters to Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. from Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap., St. Bonaventure’s, Cork, seeking information on the Capuchins of Cork city (with sources) from circa 1654-1766. Fr. Stanislaus refers to Fr. T.J. Walsh’s article on the Cork Capuchins: ‘It reaches a high level, and will read well. You know he is preparing it for the Capuchin Annual, with illustrations’.
