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The Capuchin presence in Kilkenny can be traced to 1643 when two friars, Fathers Peter Nugent OSFC and Thomas Tuite OSFC, came to the town after their residence in Mullingar was destroyed by fire. Following their arrival in Kilkenny they stayed in a rented house near St. Canice’s Cathedral. The Bishop of Ossory, the Most Rev. David Rothe (1573-1650), was favourably disposed to the friars and he subsequently gave them charge of one of the chapels in the cathedral. On 8 March 1648 Bishop Rothe granted the Capuchins a canonical foundation with official rights and privileges to minister in the diocese. Though the Capuchins have had a long association with Walkin Street (later Friary Street) in Kilkenny, it is clear that this was not the location of their original foundation. There are references to at least three other locations where they had previously ministered. It is known that Fr. Sebastian Butler OSFC (d. July 1647) secured a residence and a chapel but its exact location has not been established. In about 1650, the Capuchin community consisted of Fr. Barnaby Barnewall OSFC (d. 1663), Fr. Anthony Nugent OSFC, Fr. Christopher Kearney OSFC (d. 1656), Fr. Gregory Mulchonry OSFC, Fr. Fiacre Tobin OSFC (d. 1656) and Br. John Verdon OSFC. Following the upheavals of the Cromwellian conquest, the Capuchins secured a plot of ground on St. Michael’s Lane, adjoining St. John’s Abbey (a former Augustinian Priory), where they established a hospice and an oratory in which ‘they preached the office of missionaries’.

In 1678 the Capuchins had a community of three in the city. Their friary and chapel continued to be situated near St. John’s Abbey. Fr. Nicholas Cornan OSFC was among the regular clergy of Kilkenny mentioned in the will of Bishop James Phelan in 1693. The Capuchin house adjoining St. John’s Abbey was suppressed in 1697 after the passage of the Act of Banishment which aimed to expel ‘all Regulars of the Popish Clergy out of this Kingdom’. Some of the dispersed friars from St. Michael’s Lane later moved to an alms house on Walkin Street. This alms house or ‘Poor House Chapel’ as it came to be known, was founded by Fr. James Tobin OSFC who was a native of Leyrath (or Lyrath) in County Kilkenny. At the rear of the alms house, a small chapel was built which the Capuchins served. The site of ‘Father Tobin’s Poor House’ is covered by the right wing of the present-day Friary, which runs at right angles to Friary (formerly Walkin) Street, near Pennyfeather Lane. Later, Fathers Thomas Murphy OSFC (c.1744-1817) and William Berry OSFC (c.1742-1822) obtained a small plot of ground beside the alms house on which they built a small church and community residence. When the Capuchins obtained this site the endowment of the alms house was transferred to the houses on the opposite side of Walkin Street. This residence was used by the Capuchins until 1848 when Fr. Peter Joseph Mulligan OSFC (1793-1853) built the present-day Friary Church of St. Francis. Fr. Mulligan, who was the guardian or local superior of the Capuchin community, also obtained a lease of a small plot of ground which enabled him to build an entrance to the church directly onto Walkin Street.

The new church was built over the existing alms house chapel ensuring that there was no interruption to day-to-day religious services. The alms house chapel occupied a portion of the area inside the main arches of the present-day Church of St. Francis. The architects for the new church were Messrs Wright and O’Toole. Additional adornment for the new building was secured in the form of a belfry with two bells (still in use), one of which Fr. Mulligan styled ‘Shiel’, and the other ‘O’Connell’, in honour of two of the great champions of Catholic Emancipation in the first half of the nineteenth century. A large cross (the first to be erected over a Catholic place of worship in Kilkenny since the Reformation) was also installed. Fr. Mulligan died in 1853, leaving Fr. Laurence O’Flynn OSFC (1807-1863) as the only Capuchin friar in Kilkenny until 1855 when Fr. Edward Tommins OSFC (1812-1889) arrived. Fr. Tommins secured pillars, pediments and altar cornices from the old cathedral of St. Mary’s and installed them in the Church of St. Francis when the new Cathedral was being built in the 1850s. On 23 September 1868 a new altar piece was erected, executed by Guardiocini, a celebrated Italian painter. In October 1873 a statue of the Sacred Heart by J. O’Reilly of Cork was installed in the sanctuary. An extension of the friary building was completed towards the end of the nineteenth century. On 15 December 1873 the foundation stone was laid for a new friary residence running parallel to Walkin Street. A novitiate for the Capuchin Order in Ireland was also opened in Kilkenny in 1875. A few years later, in 1884, a Seraphic School was established. In 1889 a lease was obtained for a small garden adjoining the friary and in July 1896 the site of the old alms house was obtained from the Most Rev. Abraham Brownrigg (1836-1928), Bishop of Ossory (see CA KK/2/1/1/1/15). This allowed for the building of an additional wing to the friary in 1897. This new wing was located at right angles to Walkin Street and extended to Pennyfeather Lane, completely covering the site of the earlier Poor House (constructed by Fr. James Tobin) and Fr. Mulligan’s later building. Side chapels were added to the church in 1938. The designs for these chapels were completed by John Joseph Robinson & Richard Cyril Keeffe, architects, and the builders were Messrs W.K. Cleere & Son of Kilkenny. The tercentenary of the arrival of the Capuchins in Kilkenny was marked in 1948 with elaborate religious and civic ceremonies. A Friary Hall (St. Francis Hall) was opened in April 1956 and a new novitiate building, designed by Sylvester Bourke (1928-2009), a local architect, was constructed in the early 1960s.

Collection Content

The fonds consists of records relating to the Capuchin community in Kilkenny City and in particular to the foundation known as the Church of St. Francis situated on Friary Street (formerly Walkin Street). The fonds includes legal records relating to the acquisition, transfer and disposal of church property (such as deeds of title, mortgages and bills of sale), financial records, and material relating to individual members of the Capuchin community in Kilkenny. The collection includes a large number of administrative and community files, financial statements and books of account relating to building construction and structural alterations, correspondence, plans, publicity material, photographs, library books and miscellaneous items of commemorative ephemera connected with Capuchin ministries and apostolates in Kilkenny. The collection also includes unpublished historical writings and biographical material relating to notable members of the Capuchin Order who ministered in Kilkenny. The fonds also includes records relating to the lay religious sodality known as the Third Order of St. Francis (now the Secular Franciscan Order) attached to the Capuchin Church in the city.

Lease from Benjamin Whitestone, Cork, to William Clark, merchant, of a cellar, yard and linnies formerly in the possession of Paul Benson and ‘containing in front to the quay seventy-five feet and in depth at the east end thereof two hundred and twenty four feet situated on Red Abbey Island in the city of Cork’, for 800 years at the yearly rent of £70. With attached sketch map of the premises titled: ‘A map of cellars, linnies and yards near Parliament Bridge, let by Mr Benjamin Whitestone to Mr William Clark delineated in foot measurement, October 24th 1781, by Patrick [Ahern]’.

This section includes deeds, leases and other legal documents relating to the title to three houses fronting onto Church Street (nos. 138-140) which subsequently became part of the present-day Capuchin Friary. It was evident that Fr. Nicholas Murphy OSFC (1849-1923) and the other Capuchins friars were eager to purchase these derelict properties with the intention of ‘pulling down the houses’ in order to expand the Friary. In 1886, Fr. Nicholas succeeded in acquiring these plots which later became part of the Friary garden. By 1914, a solicitor reported that all traces of the original buildings and houses had completely disappeared.

Copy conveyance of George Kiernan, apothecary, Robert Kiernan, coach maker, Surdeville Kiernan, jeweller, and Ann Kiernan, spinster, to Henry Hunt, of ‘a messuage, tenement and dwelling house, yard, and garden situate on the west side of Church Street in the City of Dublin formerly in the possession of John Cane and his undertenants but now in the possession of Robert Joseph Sutter .... containing in the breadth from north to south 55 feet, in the rear 22 feet, and in depth from east to west 185 feet’. In consideration of £400. The recital of previous deeds notes that James Kiernan, great-grandfather of above-noted lessors, obtained this property from the Trustees of Forfeited Estates on 21 May 1703. The properties were previously owned by Richard Fagan who was attained for treason. The copy was compiled by T.J. Furlong, 11 Eustace Street. With a renewal of the said lease by James Hunt to John Smith, Finstown, Dublin in consideration of £2. 28 Dec. 1815, and a further renewal by Rev. Henry Hunt, Lurgan Rectory near Virginia, County Cavan, to John Smith, Lucan, County Dublin, in consideration of £2 15s 4½d. 13 June 1856.

This section relates to two houses on Walkin Street which were formerly known as the Munster Arms. A Kilkenny newspaper, 'Finn’s Leinster Journal' (18 July 1770), included an article which referred to an old Inn known as 'The Munster Arms' on Walkin Street. The plot of ground on which this building stood was situated opposite the existing Capuchin Friary on Walkin Street. The buildings were purchased by the Capuchins in 1896 and part of the Munster Arms’ site was given over to Bishop Abraham Brownrigg in lieu of an alms house or charitable institution which was located on the opposite, Friary side of Walkin Street and which was subsequently demolished and incorporated into the existing Friary building (see CA KK/2/1/1/1/15). One of the above-mentioned houses on the Munster Arms site was retained and let to a tenant in order to meet the annual rent of £13 7s 8d on the property (see CA KK/2/1/1/2/5). The section includes deeds with numerous references to the historic owners of the Munster Arms and Alms House sites on Walkin Street including the Colles and Empson families. It is likely that part of Munster Arms site is currently occupied by a property now known as 17 Friary Street which was subsequently sold by the Capuchins (see section 2.1.1.2. below).

This section contains mainly legal documents including various types of deeds of title including leases, mortgages, wills, property abstracts, searches, and financial documents. The section also includes correspondence from solicitors engaged in legal work connected with the conveyance of property. The material is divided into two sub-series relating to the location of the plots of ground to which the document refers: Walkin Street (later Friary Street) and Pennyfeather Lane.

Conveyance from George Chapman, Kilkenny City, smith, to Richard Empson, Kilkenny City, merchant, of a lease of a house on Walkin Street, Kilkenny, ‘commonly called and known by the name of the Munster Arms’, for three lives (renewable forever) at the yearly rent of £14 10s, and in consideration of £140. A recital of an earlier lease (dated 8 Apr. 1769) by William Colles to George Chapman of the said house for three lives at the yearly rent of £14 10s is given. The reverse of the lease is endorsed with a rental of the said premises (Head rent: £35 3s 10½d; Profit rent: £20 13s 10½d). With a manuscript copy of the said conveyance.

This series contains property documents including title deeds, legal correspondence and memoranda relating to the acquisition of properties in Kilkenny by the Capuchin friars. For the most part, the documents relate to the present-day Friary building situated on Friary Street (formerly known as Walkin Street). The modern Friary consists of two portions, one running parallel to Friary Street, built about 1873-4; the other is a wing built in 1897, situated at a right angle and extending to the adjoining Pennyfeather Lane. The series also contains documents relating to the novitiate building constructed on the site of the Capuchin Friary in Kilkenny in 1959-60.