Letter from Lillie Connolly [wife of James Connolly], 22 St Patrick’s Road, Drumcondra, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., expressing her joy that her son Roderic has started school and has promised to make for ‘lost time’. She also expresses her delight on hearing the ‘little message from the dear Countess [Markievicz]’. She adds ‘I pray and long for the day when she may enjoy her freedom’. With cover.
Letter from Maud Griffith, 132 St. Lawrence Rd., to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., asking him to ‘find out anything about Arthur. He was arrested at 1 a.m. this morning, what I fear [is that] he may be deported tonight before I could see him …’.
Letter from Sinéad de Valera to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. referring to her anxiety over ‘the midnight raid and Saturday’s paper’. She adds ‘Dev is in Gloucester prison. I had a message from the Governor saying to send on some clothes’.
Letter from Hanna Sheehy Skeffington to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., expressing her concern on hearing of his serious illness. She affirms that Fr. Albert’s name ‘is treasured by all who know you and who love Ireland and all dear dead who died for her. The widows and sisters of the men of 1916 whom you attended and consoled and of the later martyrs also will always remember you with affection’.
Letter from Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap. expressing his relief at being able to work again and affirming that he would like to do more preaching. He also refers to communications from Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. and to his distress on not having access to Irish newspapers. Reference is also made to the troubled state of Ireland. He writes ‘the greatest opportunity that came for nearly 800 years lost: it would make one’s blood boil’.
Letter from Fr. Albert Bibby to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap., confirming that a letter has arrived from the Provincial Minister stating that he has arranged for his travelling to Abbottstown in Pennsylvania. Fr. Albert writes ‘I simply dread the saying good-bye here. But I see I must face it and rely on God’s help to bring me through this as he has brought me through other unpleasant experiences in the past’.
Letter from Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. to Fr. [Aloysius Travers OFM Cap.] referring to his journey to the United States on board the steamship 'Republic'. In Irish
Letter from Fr. Albert Bibby, St. Benedict’s Rectory, 320 West End Street, New York, to Fr. Bonaventure Murphy OFM Cap., re his arrival in New York and to his meeting with Fr. Solanus Casey OFM Cap. He describes Casey as ‘a New Yorker, a great worker in the cause and a grand Friar of genial but somewhat ascetic type. He speaks at meetings, writes in [the] Press, and is the friend and trusted confidant of the right people’. Fr. Albert also refers to divisions in the Irish community in New York and notes that ‘our friends are split up into pieces – too bad. I’m speaking with a grand type of man who with tears in his eyes spoke of Liam M[ellows] … English gold and English diplomacy is at work in sowing the seeds of discord here’. He concludes that ‘the more I see here the greater my appreciation of Ireland’.
Letters from Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. to Fr. Augustine Hayden OFM Cap., referring to journey to the United States, from New York to Santa Barbara, California, his declining health and to the consolation he has found as his death approaches. On 25 Jan. 1925 Fr. Albert wrote: ‘I am gradually getting weaker and am preparing for end. … Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. came here last night and will remain with me to the end. Tis a great comfort and joy to have him. He will do for me what he did for Terry McSweeney in Brixton Jail’. With a newspaper cutting from the Santa Barbara Daily News (21 Jan. 1925) containing an article with (photographic prints) of the Old Mission of Santa Ynez and ‘Padre Albert’.
