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Letters regarding a dispute over the editorship of the temperance publication, 'The Father Mathew Record', also known as 'The Irish Home Journal'. The file includes a letter from Brian O’Higgins to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OSFC, Provincial Minister, complaining about his dismissal as associate editor of the 'Record' by Fr. Joseph Fenlon OSFC who ‘desired to keep politics out of the Journal’. O’Higgins, a member of Sinn Féin, admits that he is ‘on what is known as “the run”’. With notes by Fr. Edwin regarding the proprietorship of the Journal, and the need to reserve the appointment of editor to the council of the Capuchin Franciscan Order in Ireland. Later, Fr. Joseph wrote to Fr. Edwin confirming his resignation from the Presidency of Father Mathew Hall and the temperance sodality. The file also includes a signed notice of a special meeting of the Hall Committee affirming that the ‘"Record" was started by Fr. Aloysius [Travers], President of the Hall … [and] that the Office of the Record was transferred to the Hall premises’. The committee members contended that the 'Record' magazine was the property of the committee ‘and that the Provincial Superiors acted without consideration of the circumstances when … they decided to take it over and have it conducted independently of the committee and its President’. (10 June 1920).

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.

Memorandum by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap., Provincial Secretary, referring to the discovery in the Church Street Archives in 1922 of a collection of papers labelled ‘Correspondence between Dr. Cullen and the Fathers relative to the New Church in North King Street’. Fr. Stanislaus refers to a loose folio sheet titled ‘Notabilia’ relating to the Baron Hale bequest which was the ‘only authentic expression of an obligation for Masses to be found … in the Archives’. (See CA CS/2/3/2). The memorandum affirms that the ‘Notabilia’ document was submitted by Fr. Stanislaus to a definitory meeting in November 1922 which ordered him to investigate the whereabouts of the investment and interest money referred to in the bequest. The memorandum reports Fr. Stanislaus’s findings in relation to the Hale bequest. It notes that in 1893 the legacy, which had been converted to stocks worth £181 11s 5d, was transferred to the Commissioners for the Reduction of National Debt and was subsequently paid to Jane E. Pratt, lawful sister and next of kin of Fr. Daniel Patrick O’Reilly OSFC, one of the priests in whose name the legacy was invested. Fr. Stanislaus concludes by affirming that ‘interest on the investment was drawn up in 1883 which warrants the assumption that the masses were likewise said up to that time’. With copies of the memorandum and transcription of the ‘Notabilia’ document made by Fr. Stanislaus on 10 Nov. 1921. One of the copies is endorsed by Fr. Stanislaus: ‘submitted to the General Definition, Rome, Decree of Condonation from the Sacred Congregation, dated, Feb. 22, 1927 [and signed by Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap.], appended’. The file also includes a typescript note suggesting that ‘Baron Hale’ may refer to Sir Matthew Hales, Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench. Some of the notes by Fr. Stanislaus also refer to the correspondence of Fr. Lawrence Gallerani, Irish Capuchin Commissary General, with Archbishop Paul Cullen, regarding the construction of St. Mary of the Angels.

Letters of Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap. (1905-1972). Correspondents include Fr. Kieran O’Callaghan OFM Cap., Provincial Secretary; Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister; Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap., Provincial Minister; Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap., Provincial Minister. Most of the correspondence relates to developments in the Irish Capuchin mission in Northern Rhodesia and to a lesser extent in the Cape Province, South Africa. The subjects include: the arrival of Fr. Jerome MacQuillian OFM Cap. and Fr. Marcellus Carroll OFM Cap. in Northern Rhodesia. (18 Aug. 1935); the establishment of the Lukulu Station in Barotseland. (1 Sept. 1935); Fr. Casimir Butler’s desire for chaplaincy work in Parow Parish, South Africa. (10 Dec. 1935); co-operation with the Holy Cross Sisters. (20 Dec. 1935); work on the Sancta Maria (Lukulu) training school and the need for each Rhodesian Mission Station to have spiritual books for ‘retreats and ordinary reading’; arrangements for the arrival of Fr. Jarlath Gough OFM Cap. and Br. Alexius Paolucci OFM Cap. (5 May 1936); the establishment of a Prefecture for the Barotseland Mission (13 July 1936); enclosing a copy of the annual report on the Irish Capuchin Mission in Northern Rhodesia. (28 July 1936); the appointment of Fr. Killian as Prefect Apostolic of Victoria Falls. (11 Aug. 1936); Fr. Killian’s investiture as Prefect Apostolic (25 Nov. 1936); negotiations with the Paris Missionaries regarding the limits of the Sancta Maria Mission at Lukulu. (1 Jan. 1937); enclosing a copy of the 1937-8 report for the Victoria Falls Prefecture. (14 Sept. 1938); the boundaries of the Parow and Athlone parishes, Cape Town, South Africa. (6 Nov. 1939); the health of Fr. Livinus Keane OFM Cap. (9 Nov. 1939); an outbreak of the bubonic plague at Sancta Maria Mission and the dangers of transferring priests from Europe to South Africa due to the U-Boat threat (18 Mar. 1940); the proposed new status for the Irish Capuchin houses in the Cape Province, South Africa. (13 Oct. 1940); the position of interned ‘alien priests’ in Northern Rhodesia (25 Apr. 1941); the arrival of Polish refugees in Livingstone. (12 Aug. 1941); the ill-health of Fr. Damascene McKenna OFM Cap. in Northern Rhodesia (5 June 1942); the provision of doctors in Catholic Mission Centres. (23 June 1944); the Katima Muliho mission station. (11 Dec. 1944); copy report on the state of the Northern Rhodesia mission sent to the Prefect of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. (28 Jan. 1945); a proposal to circulate a local mission magazine. (19 May 1945); the jubilee letters of Fr. Phelim O’Shea and Fr. Oliver O’Hanlon (24 June 1945); extending an invitation to the Irish Sisters of Charity to establish a ‘foundation for coloured work in this Prefecture’ (31 Dec. 1948); the pressing need for more priests to be sent to the Northern Rhodesian Mission (28 Aug. 1949); the arrival of Fr. Colga O’Riordan OFM Cap. and Fr. Carthage Ruth OFM Cap. (22 Nov. 1949); on the need for priests to take ‘sociological courses’ before departing for Africa. Fr. Killian wrote ‘I am becoming more and more convinced that not by Baptisms alone is Africa going to be converted and that priests must be thoroughly versed in sociological principles. How can anyone keep the Commandments in a modern African compound hut?’ (11 Feb. 1952).

Draft and copy letters of Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap. relating to the Irish Capuchin missions in Africa. The file includes copy letters to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, Fr. Sylvester Mulligan OFM Cap., General Definitor, and Fr. Maurice Dowd OFM Cap., and a letter from Fr. Hilary McDonagh OFM Cap. On 21 May 1948, Fr. James wrote ‘We feel that there is great future for the Irish Province in South Africa where the Irish Capuchins were the first, and still stand alone, in their mission to pure natives in the Langa Compound’.

Letter from Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap., Hermiston, Oregon, to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., regarding the disposition of Stanfield Church and the progress of building works on other churches in his ministry in Oregan. He wrote: ‘As soon as the weather moderates I will begin the building of the Church at Pilot Rock. I intended to call it Santa Clara but I will get a donation of $1,000 if I call it Saint Agnes. What’s in a name? I’ve been called many names myself, few of them as complimentary in the change as this one’.

Scale: 5 miles to 1 inch
Map of the Cape Province, South Africa, by the Roads Branch, Cape Provincial Administration. With mileage table in both Afrikaans and English. Manuscript additions to the map (in pencil) roughly indicate the location of the Irish Capuchin churches in the Cape Province: Langa, Athlone, Parow, the Welcome Estate and Matroosfontein. A distinction is made between locations with both churches and mission schools and areas where only a school is present. A manuscript stamp indicates that the map was sent to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, St. Bonaventure’s Friary, Cork.

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).