Correspondence of Fr. Columbus Murphy OSFC, President, Father Mathew Hall, regarding demands for payments of income tax. The file includes demand notices and letters from the Inspector of Taxes. In April 1938 Fr. Columbus wrote ‘The Father Mathew Hall is the social centre attached to the Sacred Thirst Sodality. Since 1891 it has provided a club for the people of the district acting as a powerful factor in uplifting these people and encouraging temperance amongst them. In providing for these people decent and safe pastimes and entertainment we produce each year plays, concerts etc the artists in which are drawn from the members of our hall and are of course members of the Temperance Association Sodality. The Hall is heavily in debt and any profits are applied to reduce this debt’. Fr. Columbus later admitted that a good many of the shows staged in the Hall are run at a loss and that the ‘Feis is usually a financial failure – but it is doing good work so we continue’.
Expenses and receipt book for Father Mathew Hall, Church Street. The entries are recorded under date, details and totals of expenses and receipts. Most of the expenditure relates to services and utilities such as rent, electricity, salaries and repairs. An annotation on the first page reads ‘Continuation from old ledger’ (see CA HA/1/3/12).
Programmes for Christmas Pantomime programmes at Father Mathew Hall. The file comprises programmes for 'Dick Whittington and his Cat' (1964-65); 'Babes in the Wood' (1966-67); 'Robinson Crusoe' (1968-69).
Letter from Antoinette Reilly, Bord Fáilte, to Fr. Christopher Twomey OFM Cap. enclosing £200 in payment for permission to reproduce photographs of the plaster-work in Father Mathew Hall. With a copy of 'Ireland of the Welcomes', 49 (Mar.-Apr. 2000), which includes a feature on ‘Father Mathew Hall: A Celtic Revival Treasure’ by Nicola Gordon Bow (pp 14-21).
Schedule for the Father Mather Feis, Church Street. The timetable outlines the various competitions and the list of plays and groups participating in the National Drama Festival of Ireland. The premier award was the Capuchin Periodicals Cup, presented by Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap. (‘won in 1953 by The Walkinstown Players’). The F.J. McCormack Cup and Gold Medal, designed by Richard King, was awarded for best character acting.
Membership form for the Associate Members’ Guild of the Father Mathew Feis. Invitations are to be sent to Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap., President, Father Mathew Hall.
Programme for the Father Mathew Feis, Church Street, 1983. The programme lists the various bursaries offered for certain competitions at the Feis and provides a list of committee members and adjudicators. The rules of the Feis are set out. The competitions include: singing; piano; string competitions; accordion; speech and drama; 'Aithriseóireacht'.
Play scripts and poem texts submitted by participants in the Father Mathew Feis. The plays are 'Cats of Egypt' by T.B. Morris (‘under 17 groups’) and 'The Tangled Web' by Austin Walsh (Immaculate Conception Club, Clondalkin, County Dublin). The file also includes works by Barbara Bingley, Joseph Chiari, William Allingham, and Herbert Gedger.