Correspondence of James Pearse with Charles Bradlaugh (1833-1891), 20 Circus Road, St. John’s Wood, London. The letters refer to various publications on atheist and secularist issues by Bradlaugh and to Pearse’s dealings with the former’s publishing house. In a letter (29 September 1884) Bradlaugh wrote ‘As we have started a completely equipped printing office at 67 Fleet Street in addition to our publishing department we shall be pleased if at any time you can favour us with any commands for printing’. A copy letter from Pearse to Bradlaugh (5 December 1884) noted that it has been ‘six weeks since my pamphlet “Socialism a curse” was issued from your office’. A letter (4 July 1885) from Bradlaugh reads ‘I have heard some of your pamphlets [are] highly spoken of by friends. I am glad you liked the Birmingham meeting’. A letter (2 July 1885) from Pearse to Bradlaugh reads ‘I am placed in a very paradoxical position – an image maker by profession and an image breaker by inclination’. He adds ‘I have been dangling – to use a scriptural phrase – between Hell and Heaven for the last twenty five years of my life: only that I reverse the meaning of the words: - everything appertaining to ecclesiasticism I regard as the former; and to be free of which, I regard as the latter’. A letter (7 July 1885) from Pearse reads ‘The fact is I am extremely disgusted with what I read in this morning’s papers, especially the action of the ungrateful Irish Party’. A letter (16 Sept. 1889) from Bradlaugh reads ‘it is quite impossible for me to print in the “National Reformer” anything which William Stewart Ross prints in the “Agnostic Review” as he has ‘circulated the very vilest libels about me’. In a letter (17 Sept. 1889) Pearse writes ‘I have written a letter to the “Agnostic Journal” upon [the] same subject (agnosticism and atheism) principally because my name was mentioned therein’.
Lists of pledge-takers in the parish of Schull in County Cork. The lists include those who took the pledge under the parish priest, Fr. John O’Connor. The second list identifies those who took the pledge for life or for one year, and the names of the Young Irish Crusaders.
Lists of retreats and missions given by the Capuchin friars. The lists provide information in respect of the names of the friars giving the mission or retreat, the location (with occasional reference to the parish priest), and the date. Several lists are extant in the file. The file includes: • List of sermons given at missions in Ballinalsoe, County Galway. Oct. 1914. • General Capuchin mission list from Jan.-Dec. 1914. • General Capuchin mission and retreat list (with addendums) from Jan.-Dec. 1915.
File of newspaper clippings mainly re various anniversaries and commemorations connected with Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC and the temperance campaign. Many of the articles refer to sermons and talks on temperance made by Fr. Thomas Dowling OSFC (1874-1951). The file includes: • ‘The anniversary celebration at St. Mary’s Cathedral Temperance Hall’. Refers to a lecture on the Apostle of Temperance by Fr. Thomas Dowling OSFC. 'Cork Examiner', Oct. 1899. • ‘The vigil of Father Mathew’s Anniversary / Rejoicing in the city’, 'Evening Echo', 10 Oct. 1899. • ‘Father Mathew Anniversary / Oration by Very Rev. Fr. Thomas OSFC / References to Home Rule / Brilliant Discourse’, 'Cork Examiner', 12 Oct. 1912. • ‘Mathew Anniversary / Father Mathew Hall’, 'Evening Echo', 11 Oct. 1917. • ‘Has prohibition a heretical tendency / A Franciscan on temperance’. Refers to an address by Fr. Thomas Dowling OSFC in Dublin on the anniversary of Fr. Mathew’s birth. 'Catholic Herald', 15 Oct. 1921. • ‘Address at Father Mathew Anniversary Celebration’, 'Freeman’s Journal', 11 Oct. 1921. • ‘Father Mathew Anniversary / Cork’s distinguished son honoured / imposing procession’, 'Cork Examiner', 18 Oct. 1902. • ‘Mathew Celebrations / Fr. Mathew Hall’, 'Cork Examiner', 12 Oct. 1918.
Register of masses at the Church of St. Francis, Kilkenny. The entries include the signatures of the celebrants. The entries were routinely signed by the Provincial Minister at visitations. Monthly totals of masses are also periodically given.
Letter to Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC, guardian, referring to the recent National Temperance Congress. The letter affirms that the ‘most efficient way of reaping the fruits of the Congress is by the formation in this city without further delay … of a branch of the “Father Mathew Total Abstinence Association” similar to those established in in the other centres throughout Ireland …’. The letter is signed by Robert Branigan, Thomas Cantwell JP, Thomas Hayden and William J. Cleere. The letter encloses a list of 107 names (with address) in support of the foundation of the aforementioned branch.
Search in the Registry of Deeds for acts affecting the house and concerns on Walkin Street, Kilkenny city, commonly called ‘The Munster Arms’ under the names of Margaret Empson and Joseph Empson between 22 Mar. 1859 and 2 May 1895.
Account book with details of receipts from the sale of temperance medals, manuals, certificates and crosses by the Irish Capuchin friars. Reference is made to certificates sold by Fr. Thomas Dowling OSFC (1874-1951) and Fr. Luke Sheehan OSFC (1873-1937). It is noted that Fr. Luke was a missionary at Steamer Point in Aden in 1903. The latter portion of the volume was subsequently used by Fr. Denis Corkery OFM Cap. (1914-1997) as a notebook for transcribing material (mostly in Irish and French). The dates of these entries are c.1970.
An envelope dated 26 Sept. 1856 with annotation on front ‘Father Mathew’s Hair’. The envelope also has notes re a cashbook account endorsed on front. The other items are felt-covered decorative pieces containing small (encased) portions of Fr. Mathew’s hair. The decorative pieces were probably created in the early twentieth century.
