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Correspondence of Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, and Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC, with the Catholic Bishops of Derry, Ferns, Waterford and Lismore, Down and Connor, Dromore, Clogher, Kilmore, the Archbishop of Tuam, the Archbishop of Dublin, and Cardinal Michael Logue, Archbishop of Armagh, re the publication of the Capuchin Franciscan 'Temperance Manual', the establishment of temperance sodalities in the various dioceses, and the general progress of the temperance crusade conducted by the friars. The draft letter from Fr. Paul Neary OSFC to Archbishop William Walsh (1841-1921) refers to the good work Fr. Aloysius Travers OSFC is doing among the trades’ societies and artisan classes in Dublin (10 Apr. 1906).

Correspondence relating to the transfer of properties on Church Street (nos. 155-157) to lay trustees of the Catholic Boys’ Brigade. Correspondents include, Thomas J. Furlong, solicitor, 11 Eustace Street, Dublin, Fr. Fiacre Brophy OSFC, Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Provincial Minister, William Mooney & Son, solicitors, 16 Fleet Street, Dublin, Michael Murphy, solicitor, 44 South Mall, Cork, and John Jameson, Bow Street Distillery, Dublin. Most of the correspondence relates to instructions to be given to solicitors with respect to the drawing up of a conveyance for the above-mentioned properties and to the need for approval of the deed which allows Fr. Matthew O’Connor OSFC and Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC to retire from their trusteeship. John Jameson assured Fr. Fiacre that ‘this company would be very reluctant to put up a building that would be objectionable to your community. … I thought there was no likelihood of the neighbourly relations which have always existed between this company and yourselves being interrupted’. On 20 Dec. 1904 Fr. Paul Neary OSFC stated that the ‘members of our Order who are trustees of the Church Street premises of the Boys’ Brigade have no desire to continue their trusteeship and are willing to hand it to any persons to whom they can do so, without breach of their trust’.

Letters from Mrs Poer Shee [var. Power Shee], Kilmacthomas, County Waterford, to Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Vicar Provincial, regarding negotiations for the handing over of the Archer Chalice to the Capuchins in Kilkenny. The chalice was originally presented by Walter Archer to the Chapel of the Blessed Mary in the Monastery of St. Francis in Kilkenny in 1606. Fr. Angelus Healy OSFC wrote to Fr. Paul explaining that Miss Poer Shee ‘will hand over the chalice to us in Kilkenny to be held until the Franciscans would get a foundation there, when she would wish it to go there (as being more in accordance with its origins) … . She gives the chalice quite freely and generously’. It is unclear from the correspondence if the agreement handing over the chalice to the Capuchins was ever fulfilled. With a sketch of the chalice. The file also includes a letter from [J.S. Gill], St. Mary’s, Lanark, Scotland, to Fr. Angelus regarding an ‘OFM Chalice’ with a Kilkenny connection dating to 1632 (the letter is dated 20 Feb. 1936), and a clipping from 'The Father Mathew Record', Vol. 39, No. 6 (June 1945) of an article titled ‘The Story of a Chalice’ by Colin Johnston Cobb. The said chalice is inscribed ‘CAPVCINORUM LOCI KILKENIAE’. See also CA KK/8/15.

Correspondence of the Most Rev. Richard Alphonsus Sheehan (1845-1915), Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, with Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Provincial Minister, re the resolution of the Irish Catholic hierarchy that ‘the Capuchin Fathers be asked to set apart a certain number of their body for the preaching of a Temperance Crusade in the Country’. A manuscript addition on one copy of the letters reads: ‘Copy of above sent to Fr. Finbarr’s, Cork, at his request (Fr. Albert Bibby, 26 Feb. 1918)’. With copy replies to Bishop Sheehan and the Most Rev. Patrick Foley (1858-1926), Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, and several copies of 'Suggestions for temperance work submitted to the standing committee of Bishops' (January 1906).

Copy power of attorney obtained from the High Court of Justice (Ireland), Chancery Division. The deed specifies that Caroline Sophia Hunt, 17 Clarinda Park East, Kingstown, County Dublin, spinster, aged 67, has appointed Rev. Henry de Vere Hunt, The Rectory, Ahascragh, County Galway, to act as her attorney, allowing him to execute deeds for certain premises situated on Church Street, Middle Abbey Street, Strand Street and Bachelors’ Walk in Dublin. Specifically, the deed allows Rev. Henry de Vere Hunt to execute a fee farm grant (under the provisions of the Renewable Leasehold Conversion Act, 1849) of premises (probably nos. 138-139) on Church Street. Caroline Sophia Hunt was entitled as tenant for life to rents accruing out of the above-noted premises. With a statement showing fee farm rent from Caroline Sophia Hunt to Fr. William (Paul) Neary OSFC and Fr. Nicholas Murphy OSFC of the aforesaid properties on Church Street.

Photographic print of several friars (including Fr. Paul Neary OSFC) in the garden of the Church Street Friary. The image is also extant in the Glass Plate Negative and Lantern Slide collection (see CA PH/1/7).

The Catholic Boys’ Brigade was founded by Fr. Benvenutus Guy OSFC (1860-1927), a Capuchin friar, in March 1894. Mainly composed of impoverished children from the Church Street area, the organisation was initially called St. Joseph’s Boys’ Brigade. The stated objects of the Brigade were ‘to crush vice and evil habits among boys, to instruct them thoroughly in the Christian doctrine … to give them habits of obedience, discipline, and self-respect and love for ecclesiastical authority and holy religion and to promote their moral, physical and temporal well-being’. The idea of forming a Brigade for the Catholic boys of Dublin sprung from the success achieved by the Protestant Boys’ Brigade. The first meeting hall of the Brigade was in a house in Smithfield which was rented at 5s per week. This meeting was held on 24 April 1894 with nine boys in attendance. The organisation grew rapidly. The Brigade Hall was soon relocated to a property (formerly a smelting foundry) at 156 Church Street which was purchased for the sum of £300. The organizing committee also succeeded in obtaining the use of an old vegetable market at the rear of the Hall which was used as a drill yard in 1895. The newly furnished hall and gallery could hold 1,500 attendees. A uniform was supplied to each enrolled boy consisting of a sash, a cap and a badge. An important aspect of the Brigade’s activities was physical exercise and participants routinely trained in ‘physical drilling, figure marching, squad and company drills’. A band was also established under the supervision of Fr. Sebastian O’Brien OSFC (1867-1931). A night-school for instructing illiterate young boys was founded in October 1899 and soon attracted thirty-five students. Religious instruction was supplied by the Capuchin friars. This was initially performed by Fr. Benvenutus Guy OSFC and later by Fr. Paul Neary OSFC (1857-1939). In 1904 the Church Street Capuchins transferred trusteeship of the properties owned by the Catholic Boys’ Brigade to lay stewardship.

Bound volume containing newspaper clippings providing accounts of the tenement collapse and the subsequent funeral and burial of the seven victims. The clippings also give lists of subscribers to the relief fund established after the disaster. The volume also contains a manuscript list of twenty-seven Capuchin friars at St. Marys of the Angels, Church Street, at Rochestown College, and at Father Mathew’s (Holy Trinity) Church in Cork. The list is headed by Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, ‘the Lord Mayor’s Chaplain’. The list also includes Fr. Joseph Fenlon OSFC, ‘superior of Fr. Mathew’s Church, Cork’, and Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OSFC, President, Rochestown College, Cork. The volume also contains a manuscript list of people with private addresses in the environs of Church Street and North King Street. The list also notes ‘Father Mathew Hall’ for all the signatories. This may be a list of members of a religious sodality or, alternatively, a list of subscribers to the Tenement Disaster fund.