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The subseries comprises a small collection of papers relating to the Irish Catholic priest and novelist Canon Patrick Sheehan.

Sheehan was born in Mallow in County Cork on 17 March 1852. He was educated at St. Colman’s College in Fermoy. He studied for the priesthood in St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth, County Kildare (1869-75). Sheehan was ordained on 18 April 1875 for the Cloyne diocese and sent on mission to England, where he served in Plymouth and Exeter. He returned to Ireland in 1877 to take up a curacy in his native Mallow. He was appointed parish priest of Doneraile in County Cork in July 1895. In 1903 he was appointed to the Cloyne diocesan chapter; hence he is most frequently referred to as ‘Canon Sheehan of Doneraile’. He was a prolific and successful author, writing a series of articles and essays on a variety of topics, and several novels, including ‘Geoffrey Austin, student’ (1895) and ‘The triumph of failure’ (1898). His most popular work was ‘My new curate’, published in 1900. Much of his writing centred on the issues faced by priests engaged in parochial work in rural Ireland. Sheehan took a keen interest in promoting modern agricultural methods, especially in tillage and dairy farming. He held weekly meetings with his parishioners in Doneraile and advised them in negotiations with their landlords following the passage of Land Purchase Act (Wyndham Act) in 1903. Sheehan also maintained a life-long friendship with the agrarian agitator William O’Brien (1852-1928). Canon Sheehan was diagnosed as suffering from cancer in 1910. Following a lengthy residence at the South Infirmary in Cork, he died on 5 October 1913. He was buried at the entrance to his church in Doneraile. A bronze statue of Canon Sheehan by Francis William Doyle Jones (1873-1938) was unveiled not far from his grave in October 1925.

Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap., the editor of ‘The Capuchin Annual’, was interested in Canon Sheehan’s literary career. Much of the material listed here was compiled for a special supplement marking the centenary of Canon Sheehan’s birth published in ‘The Capuchin Annual’ in 1952. A good portion of the original material was seemingly acquired by Fr. Senan from Presentation Sisters who resided in Doneraile and who were acquainted with Canon Sheehan during his lifetime.

The subseries comprises a small collection of records relating to various Irish landlord defence associations and related loyalist and unionist political organisations in the late nineteenth century. The collection includes mostly printed circulars, fliers, and ephemera sent to members of these organisations. The goal of these interrelated associations was to defend the rights and interests of landed proprietors in Ireland. The organisations were set up in response to the activities of the Land League, a tenant farmer movement, which had as its primary aim the reform and eventual abolition of landlordism in Ireland.

The collection includes records generated by the Property Defence Association (PDA) which was formed in Dublin in December 1880 to assist landlords targeted by the Land League or by rural agitation in general. Led by James Stopford, 5th Earl of Courtown (1823-1914), the association served writs on tenants, provided (often armed) caretakers for evicted holdings, supplied labourers to boycotted landlords, and bought stock and farms at sheriffs’ sales. The Orange Emergency Committee, established by the loyalist Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, also in December 1880, had similar functions to the Property Defence Association. Both the PDA and Orange Emergency Committee were subscription-based aid organisations. The Irish Landowners' Convention was set up in early 1888 to protect the interests of landowners in the face of agrarian agitation and legislative reforms which enabled tenant proprietorship. James Hamilton , 2nd Duke of Abercorn (1838-1913), was elected its first president and he led the organisation for nearly a decade.

The collection also includes a small number of records relating to the Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union (ILPU), a unionist political organisation, established to oppose the nationalist Home Rule movement. The ILPU was formed in Dublin in May 1885 by a small number of southern businessmen, landowners, and academics. It sought to unite Liberals and Conservatives on a common platform of maintenance of the union between Great Britain and Ireland. The Irish Unionist Alliance was founded in 1891 by ILPU members, which it replaced. The Irish Unionist Alliance (IUA), also known as the Irish Unionist Party, was led for much of its existence by Colonel Edward James Saunderson (1837-1906) and later by William St John Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton (1856-1942).

Finally, the collection also includes a small number of fliers and printed ephemera relating to by-elections for the constituency of Trinity College (University of Dublin) in 1875 and in 1887. The college constituency was dominated by a Conservative and Unionist electorate. In January 1875, Edward Gibson, later 1st Baron Ashbourne (1837-1913), was elected for the Conservatives to serve as MP for Trinity College, Dublin. Dodgson Hamilton Madden (1840-1928) was elected Conservative MP for the university in the July 1887 by-election.

Internal evidence suggests that this material was originally assembled by John Ribton Garstin (1836-1917), a landlord and unionist, who served as High Sheriff of County Louth from 1880 to 1881. It has however not been ascertained how these records were acquired by Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap., the editor of ‘The Capuchin Annual’.

The material relates to Fr. Richard Henebry’s career as a prominent Irish language academic and to the activities of Conradh na Gaeilge (Gaelic League) and general Irish language activism especially in Henebry’s native Waterford. His correspondence includes letters from leading contemporary Irish language scholars, linguists and celticists such as Whitley Stokes, Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha (‘An Seabhac’), John Strachan, Heinrich Zimmer, Kuno Meyer, Eleanor Hull, and Tadhg Ó Donnchadha (‘Torna’). The collection also includes letters to Henebry from Roger Casement and Douglas Hyde. The collection also includes material relating to the posthumous publication of Henebry’s ‘A Handbook of Irish Music’, edited by Tadhg Ó Donnchadha, and published by University College Cork in 1928. Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap. was interested in Henebry’s career and was involved in the posthumous promotion of his contribution to Irish language scholarship and traditional Irish music. The files include letters from several leading academic, cultural and political figures including Sir Bertram Windle, Carl Gilbert Hardebeck, Fr. Michael Sheehan, William Frederick Paul Stockley, Mac Giolla Bhríde (William Gibson, 2nd Baron Ashbourne), and Frank Ryan. Fr. Senan seemingly acquired most of this material for several articles on Henebry published in ‘The Father Mathew Record’. The material was later preserved among Moynihan’s personal collection of papers.

The subseries comprises a small collection of papers relating to the Pearse family, most notably Patrick Pearse (1879-1916), a writer, educationalist, and revolutionary. The collection also includes material relating to Patrick’s father, James Pearse (1839-1900), an English stonemason and sculptor who came to Ireland in about 1860. Following the death of his first wife in 1876, James Pearse married Margaret Brady (1857-1932), a Dublin-born shop assistant. The couple had four children, Margaret Mary Pearse (born 1878), Patrick Pearse (born 1879), William Pearse (born 1881), and Mary Brigid Pearse (born 1884). The collection includes some papers compiled by Margaret Pearse (née Brady), later a prominent nationalist figure and Dáil deputy, and her eldest daughter Margaret Mary Pearse (1878-1968), a teacher and Fianna Fáil politician. There are also a small number of papers associated with William Pearse (1881-1916), the younger son in the Pearse family. Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap., the editor of ‘The Capuchin Annual’, was a close acquaintance of Margaret Mary Pearse and corresponded with her frequently. Moynihan was seemingly gifted this small archive of family records by Margaret Mary Pearse, and the collection was later preserved among his personal papers.

The sub-series contains the correspondence of solicitors. Most of the correspondence relates to bills of costs for legal work connected with property-related transactions.

This sub-series contains wills, executors’ accounts, solicitors’ correspondence and related legal documents re legacies, bequests, and other forms of donations to the Capuchin community in Kilkenny. The material is arranged chronologically. The Mass Intentions’ Ledger Book at CA KK/1/1/3/5 contains a list of mass bequests from c.1930-60.

A collection of records mostly relating to the Temperance Sodality of the Sacred Thirst attached to St. Mary of the Angels, Capuchin Friary, Church Street, Dublin.