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The series includes mainly administrative files relating to the ministries undertaken by the Capuchin community in Kilkenny City. The series includes records of masses, internal community records and minute books, correspondence, schedules, and records of appointments and transfers to the Kilkenny house.

This series comprises historical catalogues and schedules of records held in the archives of Holy Trinity Friary in Cork. Some of the material noted in these catalogues is now extant in the Irish Capuchin Archives. However, other archival material referenced in these descriptive lists has now evidently been lost.

This section contains a collection of historical texts which were formerly held in the Library of the Capuchin Friary in Kilkenny. They were transferred to the Irish Capuchin Archives by Fr. Benedict Cullen OFM Cap. in the late 1990s. The collection includes some rare seventeenth century theological works collected by Irish-born friars who were educated in continental seminaries and friaries. Many of these early works include valuable information in the form of annotations, marginalia, and inscriptions. Other volumes include notes and stamps which provide further information about their provenance. Very little is known about the Capuchins in Kilkenny in the eighteenth century, though it must be presumed that, during most of this period, friars were living in the city. It can be said with some degree of certainty that they had a community in Kilkenny in 1757. A volume in this collection bears an annotation on the title page: ‘Ex libris Patris Simonis Eustace, Capucini Conventus Kilkenniensis 1757’. In another volume, he wrote ‘Simon Eustace, Vicar’, and enters the date 1756 (See CA KK/10/14). Aside from theological works touching upon the lives of saints or other aspects of religious devotion, the library also includes books relating to local history and antiquities, medicine, and linguistics. The series includes works published in English, Latin, French, and Dutch. The texts are listed chronologically.

A small collection of records relating to Father Mathew Hall, Cork, which was opened in 1907. The series is divided into two sub-series. The first includes general organisational records and the second contains material relating to the Feis Maitiú Corcaigh.

James McKenna (d. 1846) played a key role in the founding of the Cork Total Abstinence Society (CTAS) in 1838. He also acted as Fr. Mathew’s principal travelling secretary during the early years of his campaign. McKenna made extensive efforts to publicise the movement through newspaper advertising, the printing of posters, pamphlets and handbills but the most comprehensive expression of his temperance philosophy is preserved in his manuscript history of the movement. McKenna kept his voluminous records of the CTAS’s progress in his 'History of the Temperance Reformation in Ireland, England and Scotland by James McKenna, Chief Travelling and Confidential Secretary to the Very Reverend Theobald Mathew'. This eclectic, meticulously hand-written collection of hundreds of outsized pages of transcribed material was woven together in McKenna’s own strident presentation. The text recorded very many of the activities connected Fr. Mathew’s temperance campaign from 1838 to 1846. McKenna intended to publish his account, as the definitive, triumphal and popular history of what seemed like a permanent social revolution. McKenna’s sudden death (in Cork in 1846), and the temperance crusade’s rapid retreat, likely combined to prevent the manuscript’s publication. Although of dubious literary merit, McKenna’s manuscript represents an extremely important source for Fr. Mathew’s temperance crusade. The text is preserved in the Irish Capuchin Archives.

This section includes legal records relating to the management of properties at Ard Mhuire Capuchin Friary. The series also includes papers relating to the construction, renovation and repair history of Ards Friary and the Capuchin House of Studies. A sub-series includes correspondence, architectural plans, and financial records relating to the construction of a new friary and theological seminary on the existing Ard Mhuire site in the 1960s.

This series contains property documents including title deeds, legal correspondence, and memoranda relating to the acquisition of properties in Cork by the Capuchin Franciscan friars. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, Cork experienced a dramatic physical growth. George’s Quay had been built during the second half of the century, making the River Lee navigable for shipping and in 1806 Parliament Bridge had replaced an earlier structure connecting both sides of the city for the flow of commercial traffic. A location below this bridge, near the mercantile and commercial centre of the city, was chosen by Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC as the site for a new church. The foundation stone of what was to become Holy Trinity Church was laid on 10 October 1832. However, the building was not opened for public worship until 1850. The gothic portico and spire were not constructed until 1889-90. Prior to the opening of the new church, the Cork Capuchins had lived in a friary situated on Blackamoor Lane in the South Parish. Following the construction of Holy Trinity Church, the community obtained a lease of 8 George’s Quay in 1855. Later, they moved across the river to a house built by Fr. Cherubim Mazzini OSFC (1831-1906) situated at the corner of Queen Street and Charlotte Quay. Fr. Cherubim Mazzini OSFC, (sometimes referred to as Cherubini in contemporary newspapers and other documents) was a Capuchin friar from Bologna in Italy. The Cork Gas Company later took possession of this site on the quay. It is now occupied by Radió Teilifís Éireann. In the summer of 1884 the Capuchin community took up residence in the present-day friary. The building of this friary was started by a French Capuchin, Fr. Simeon Gaudillot OSFC (1836-1910), and completed by Fr. Seraphin Van Damme OSFC (1820-1887) who became the first Provincial Minister of the newly reconstituted Irish Capuchin Province in 1885.