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Letter from Dorothy Godfrey, 267 West, 139 Street, New York City, to Fr. Peter Bowe OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, Holy Trinity Friary, Cork, referring to the poor treatment which Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. received from the higher echelons of the clergy and the Order. She asserts: ‘May God forgive the clergy or Free Staters who had a hand in his exile. Sending a dying priest 3,500 miles across our land. I went with him to the train and it left a picture in my mind that cannot be blotted out. Another Christ carrying his cross. He was not able to drag his feet across the platform and carrying a heavy bag’.

Letter from Fr. William OFM Cap., Pantasaph Capuchin Friary, Holywell, North Wales, to Fr. Peter Bowe OFM Cap., Provincial Minster, extending his sympathy on the loss of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., ‘a brilliant member’ of the Irish community

Letter from Joseph W. Cleary, National Education Office, to Fr. Mark McDonnell OSFC, Church Street, enclosing a printed draft of the rules (particularly in respect of funding) for Evening National Schools. With a letter from P.E. Lemass to Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC informing him that St. Francis’ Male Evening School has been recognised by the Office of National Education. Also includes a memorandum noting that St. Francis’ School has received a capitation grant of £15 15s 0d from the Commissioners of Education.

Letter from Michael J. Dwyer, Main Street, Roscrea, to Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC, expressing his joy in having a branch of the organisation established in Roscrea.

Letter to Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC, guardian, referring to the recent National Temperance Congress. The letter affirms that the ‘most efficient way of reaping the fruits of the Congress is by the formation in this city without further delay … of a branch of the “Father Mathew Total Abstinence Association” similar to those established in in the other centres throughout Ireland …’. The letter is signed by Robert Branigan, Thomas Cantwell JP, Thomas Hayden and William J. Cleere. The letter encloses a list of 107 names (with address) in support of the foundation of the aforementioned branch.

Letter to Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC, Holy Trinity Friary, Cork, from J.C. & A. Blake, solicitors, enclosing a synopsis of title deeds for properties in the possession of the Capuchin friars.

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’

The file includes letters from various American Associations for the Recognition of the Irish Republic to Fr. Peter Bowe OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, re the Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. Includes:
Letter from Mrs John Flanagan, Secretary, Liam Mellows Council of the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic, Portland, enclosing a resolution protesting against the exiling of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. and other Capuchin Priests. With annotated cover: ‘Not Answered, F[ather] P[eter]. Deserves none except mind own business’. 25 Mar. 1925.
Letter from Martin Howard, American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic, 3 East 42nd Street, New York, enclosing a resolution condemning the ‘victimization’ of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. and other Capuchin priests who merely expressed ‘a deep rooted love of their motherland, Ireland … and were therefore looked on as a menace to the so-called Free State Government in Ireland …’. 21 Apr. 1925.
Letter from Loretta A. Ryder, Secretary, Kevin Barry Council of the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic, enclosing a resolution condemning ‘the unchristian conduct of the Superiors of the Capuchin Order of Priests in Ireland in exiling Father Albert and other Priests of their Order because they had the courage to stand up for Ireland’s rightful independence’. 4 May 1925

Letters from Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., St. Bonaventure’s Hostel, Cork, and Holy Trinity Friary, Father Mathew Quay, Cork, to Fr. Peter Bowe OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, enclosing a trace sketch and drawing of the planned extension to the Capuchin Friary, Walkin Street, Kilkenny.