Lectures on the history of the Irish Capuchin missions (primarily in Africa) compiled by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. The talks were likely prepared for promotional and educational purposes. They include copy documents including a letter from the Most Rev. Bernard O’Riley, Vicar Apostolic of Cape Town, to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, requesting a Capuchin foundation in his diocese (12 May 1927), and copy letters from Archbishop Carlo Salotti, Secretary of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, to Fr. Melchor a Benisa OFM Cap., Minister General, re the Irish Capuchin mission in Barotseland, Northern Rhodesia (Jan. 1931).
Information fliers giving news of Irish Capuchin missionaries in Zambia. Includes reports from Br. Xavier Cox OFM Cap., Fr. Seán Cahill OFM Cap., and Br. Hugh Davis OFM Cap. With statistics and personnel information re friars in the Diocese of Livingstone and in the Cape Province, South Africa.
Missionary bulletin of the Capuchin friars of Cape Province, South Africa (May, 1977, No. 3). Includes a brief history of the Irish Capuchin mission in South Africa, a report on the first chapter meeting of the Capuchins working in the Cape Flats, and a list of personnel and houses.
A collection of colour photographic prints of Victoria Falls and the surrounding area (including Livingstone Island and Forest Gorge) compiled by Br. Andrew O’Shea OFM Cap. The file includes some postcard prints. Some of the prints also show Fr. Hugh Murphy OFM Cap., Br. Daniel O’Brien OFM Cap. and Fr. Declan O’Callaghan OFM Cap. The file includes a typescript copy of an ‘Extract from Dr. David Livingstone’s Missionary Travels on the Zambezi’. The album was compiled by Br. Andrew O’Shea in 1982. The prints are captioned and are held in plastic sleeves. The prints have been removed from the ring folder.
Fr. Killian Flynn receiving an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) for his services to African education at a ceremony in Lusaka, Northern Rhodesia, in 1958.
The fonds consists of the correspondence and papers of Capuchin friars detailing their involvement with participants in the national struggle. The majority of the material dates from 1916-1925 and includes many records highlighting the roles played by Irish Capuchins in ministering to republican leaders and their relations. Of particular interest is a large collection of prison letters including the correspondence of some of the leading figures of the Irish Revolution. The fonds also contains a large collection of republican publicity material, newspapers and miscellaneous items of ephemera and artefacts mostly relating to the military and political campaign organised by nationalists for Irish independence. A smaller collection relating to the repatriation of the bodies of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. and Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. from the United States to Ireland in 1958 is also extant.
Copy letter from Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. The typescript copy notes that the original ‘belongs to L.T. Langley, 164 Iveragh Road, Gaeltacht Park, Whitehall, Dublin. The letter is incomplete, and no indication is given of the person to whom it is addressed’. The letter provides an account of the ‘closing scenes of Sean Heuston’s life’. Fr. Albert contends that ‘shortly after Easter Week, 1916, I gave a rather full account for publication in the Catholic Bulletin, but owing to the Censor’s restrictions it could not appear in print’. The letter reads: ‘At about 3.45 A.M. a British soldier knocked at the door of the cell and told us time was up. We both walked out together down to the end of the Jail yard; here his hands were tied behind his back, a cloth tied over his eyes and a small piece of white paper, about 4 or 5 inches square, pinned to his coat over his heart’. Reference is also made to Fr. Augustine’s Hayden’s ministry to Ėamonn Ceannt and Michael Mallin.
Letters from William Partridge to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. giving an outline of his career mostly in the labour and union movement under James Larkin. Partridge was among those rebels who surrendered at St Stephen’s Green in 1916. He was subsequently sentenced to ten years’ penal servitude and sent to Dartmoor and afterwards to Lewes Prison. He was released due to ill-health and returned to Ballaghadreen in County Mayo, but died on 26 July 1917. He refers to his physical condition in some of the correspondence. He writes ‘Please excuse scribbling as my sight got bad in prison and I have not yet got glasses’. With his memorial card and a newspaper cutting of his obituary notice. The file also includes a letter (probably from his brother, Felix Partridge) referring to his last days and thanking Fr. Albert for his words of sympathy.
