The subseries includes research on St. Joseph’s Cemetery, Cork. In February 1830 Fr. Mathew secured a lease of the Botanic Gardens which became the city’s first Catholic cemetery. A portion of the ground was also set aside for the free burial of the poor, whose bodies had previously been left outside their dwellings until sufficient money was collected for their internment.
The sub-series contains research notes, document transcriptions, correspondence and publications on Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC compiled by Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap. (1915-1997). The Waterford-born Capuchin friar, Brother (later Father) Nessan Shaw OFM Cap. completed a thesis titled ‘The Life and Times of Fr. Theobald Mathew’ for an MA degree in University College Cork in 1939. He retained a life-long interest in the subject and accumulated a large number of documentary sources, publications and notes pertaining to Fr. Mathew and his campaign against intemperance.
A small collection of records relating to the routine repair, refurbishment and maintenance of the physical fabric of Father Mathew Hall, Church Street, Dublin.
This subseries contains research into the ancestry and family history of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC. Fr. Mathew was born in Thomastown Castle near Golden in County Tipperary in October 1790. His father James Mathew was steward on the Thomastown estate which belonged to his relative, Francis Mathew (1738-1806), who was created Earl Landaff in 1797. There is some uncertainty about the parentage of James Mathew. One account, repeated by Fr. Mathew himself, affirmed that he was the child of an undocumented second marriage of Lord Landaff’s great uncle, James Mathew of Borris. Another account, which enjoyed some currency at the time, suggested that he was the natural son of Earl Landaff’s father Thomas Mathew. The files include research notes, genealogical tables and other information relating to Mathew family history.
The sub-series contains records relating to legal issues arising out of the management of Father Mathew Hall, Church Street, Dublin. The records specifically relate to the transfer of ownership of the Hall from elected trustees of the temperance sodality to the Capuchin Franciscan Order. This process was complicated by the legal guarantees required to ‘ensure that the purpose for which the property was acquired, and the Hall originally built would be maintained’. Other issues include negotiations with the representatives of the Merchant Tailors’ School, the original owners of the ground at 131-5 Church Street upon which the Hall was built and with the tenants of cottages on Bow Street and Nicholas Avenue who rented their properties from the Hall trustees.
