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.
Notes regarding clarification of points of seminaire discipline; some also apply to students. One is dated 1871; the other two (on the reverse) are undated.
This series includes a collection of rare books which were formerly held in the Library of Holy Trinity Friary, Father Mathew Quay, Cork. They were transferred to the Irish Capuchin Archives in Dublin in 2012. The collection is divided into six sub-series. In all of the sub-series the volumes have been arranged chronologically by date of publication. The series includes works published in Latin, French and English. Most of the volumes are in an extremely poor condition due to exposure for many years to inappropriate environmental storage conditions in the attic and in other locations in Holy Trinity Friary.
The series includes mostly copies of contemporary letters and documents relating to Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC and his temperance campaign. Most of the transcriptions of original source material in this series are undated but it can be surmised that they were compiled in the early decades of the twentieth century. Note that the date element refers to the original date of creation of the document or the time-period to which the research pertains. The original material is for the most part described in separate files.
An undated typewritten sheet headed ‘Vincentian Fathers Property’. There are gaps that were never filled in. Property named is ‘Newtown Castle Byrne’, ‘Ash Tree field’ and unspecified land in the Barony of Rathdown.
