Letters to Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap. from Gertrude Parry, Rockport, Cushendun, County Antrim, re the life of her cousin Roger Casement. She thanks Moynihan for sending copies of the ‘beautiful and artistic Capuchin Annual’. She adds ‘I was so glad to read the articles about my beloved cousin, Roger Casement. There are two slight errors. His birthday was Sept. 1st not 15th Sept. and his eyes were grey not brown, real Irish eyes’. The other letter (dated 16 October) provides a long biographical account of Casement’s life and career (23 pp). An extract of the text reads: ‘He [Casement] left Ireland in 1914 (June) to collect funds in America for the arming of the Volunteers. Whilst he was there the war broke out. This put a stop to his activities over the Volunteers and he then turned his thoughts to trying to keep Ireland out of the war. He realised that the quarrel with Germany did not concern Ireland and in joining in it, she would only be sacrificing the flower of her young men to fight England’s cause’. The file includes a cover annotated by Fr. Senan. It reads ‘Notes on Roger Casement by Mrs Parry’.
Register of masses at St. Mary of the Angels. The title page reads ‘Mass ledger begun August 1st 1942, Fr. Brendan O’Callaghan OFM Cap., Guardian. Ended – September 30th 1948, Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap., Guardian’.
An image of Irish Army armoured cars on manoeuvres in the countryside. The vehicles are most likely Swedish-built Landsverk armoured cars. The print is credited to the ‘Irish Press’.
A clipping of an article titled ‘Mr de Valera and Mr Bernard Shaw’. The article refers to a dispute between the two men over British requests to use the so-called ‘Treaty Ports’ in Ireland. (Volume page 88).
An illustration referring to the pseudonym ‘Ultach’ used by J.J. Campbell for ‘Orange Terror’ article published in ‘The Capuchin Annual’ (1943). The illustration is an adaptation of the story by Aesop of the fox (the Orange Order) attempting to trick the rooster (‘Ultach’) into coming down from his perch. The drawing is probably by the artist Richard King (1907-1974).
A letter from Seamus Murphy, Dillon’s Cross, Cork, to Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap. enclosing a photographic print of his bust of Thomas Davis. The memorial bust was unveiled by Éamon de Valera in Mallow the previous week. He also refers to his work titled ‘The Virgin of the Twilight’.
A flier promoting the Association of Patrons of ‘The Capuchin Annual’. The flier refers to the ambitions of the editors of the ‘Annual’ to ‘establish a centre of national cultural activities’ based at the head offices of Capuchin Periodicals on Capel Street in Dublin. It also notes that an exhibition of paintings held in the offices are on exhibition including works by Jack B. Yeats, Patrick Tuohy, Nathaniel Hone, and Seán O’Sullivan. (Volume pages 62-3).
Letter from Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. to the Most Rev. Patrick Collier, Bishop of Ossory, regarding the granting of faculties to act as extraordinary confessor to the Sisters of St. John of God.
An account by Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. of the imprisonment and death of Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork. Fr. Dominic wrote: ‘His sufferings, no pen could write. Try and conceive the pain you suffer in your shoulders and back and in your knees, the stiff, numbing pain in the calves of your legs, the agony in your heels, instep and ankles, even if you remain for six hours outstretched on your back. What a relief to bend your knees and draw them up toward your body. But even that little relief our heroic sufferer could not have, for the flesh had wasted from his knee’.
