Clipping of an article titled ‘Demolition for a Stately Home’ published in the 'Derry Journal'. The article refers to opening of the new Ard Mhuire Friary and House of Studies and recalls the history of the friars in Donegal since they acquired the former Ards House in 1930. The article includes a photographic print of Fr. Fergus Lawless OFM Cap. (1904-1991), Regular Superior, Capuchin Custody of California, in the oratory of the ‘soon-to-be demolished’ old Ard Mhuire Friary. It is noted that Fr. Fergus entered the old friary in 1933 and was ordained in St. Eunan’s Cathedral in Letterkenny.
Clipping of an article titled ‘Coming of the Capuchin Franciscans’ published in the 'Donegal Democrat'. The article refers to the history of the Ards Estate and to the arrival of the Capuchin friars in Donegal in 1930. With a copy print of Ard Mhuire Friary and a group of Capuchin friars including Fr. Cassian O’Shea OFM Cap. (1897-1981), Fr. Columban McGarry OFM Cap. (1901-1987), Fr. Andrew Carew OFM Cap. (1902-1987) and Fr. Finbarr O’Callaghan OFM Cap. (1879-1963).
Clipping of a photograph of Fr. David Kelleher OFM Cap., Ard Mhuire Friary, with members of the St. Michael’s Centre of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association, Creeslough, County Donegal.
Note by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. re the existence of an apartment in the Ards House called ‘the Friar’s Room’. It reads: 'The morning after the building and property were taken over from the Land Commission Holy Mass was celebrated in the portion of the building assigned an oratory. In the course of the day one of the fathers remarked to the steward “I expect this is the first time Mass was said here”. The steward was doubtful and mentioned a tradition prevalent … [that] one of the apartments is called “The Friar’s Room”. The explanation given is that about 100 or 150 years ago a friar was accustomed to visit the family and inhabited that room. The steward presumed that when he came, he said Mass in the building'.
A draft schema for the compilation of the Ard Mhuire Friary archives. The schema was devised by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. and refers to some of the foundational documents which should be obtained and secured for safe keeping. Reference is made to documents from the Land Commission, correspondence with the Bishop of Raphoe and letters from the Capuchin General Minister re the establishment of a novitiate at Ard Mhuire.
A letter from Dermot MacIntyre to Fr. David Kelleher OFM Cap. referring to the history of the former Stewart-Bam residence in Ards. An extract from the letter reads: 'In regard to Ards and Ards House, I have just found an old notebook of my father’s. He used to jot down bits and pieces on anything to hand and in this old notebook he has an entry dated, Friday, December 30, 1910. He writes: "Was at a dance in Ards House last night given by Sir Pieter Bam. Charlie Coll and I played for them. Bam came in about 9 o’clock. I did not like it all but would rather be in the poorest thatch house in Doe, with the Gaelic sounding round me, than in the midst of it all. Bam does his best to unbend, but it is plainly an effort and he seems to know himself that it won’t be successful. His wife is outrageously proud. She sat all the time like an incarnate goddess and noticed no one. Such pride is a sin against Heaven. You would think the ordinary people were less than dogs to her. Her sister is not one whit better"'. Further extracts from his father’s journal refer to the landlord’s relationships with the workers and tenants on the Ards estate, to the histories of various local churches, to a Feis at Doe Castle in 1910, and to the building of the Lough Swilly railway in Donegal.
Letter from Colette Gallagher to Fr. Eustace McSweeney OFM Cap., guardian, Ard Mhuire Friary, conveying a local tradition re the existence of a ‘half-way house between Ards Friary and Rossnowlagh’.
