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The file includes a letter from Fr. Albert to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Minister Provincial [Dec. 1922], referring to his time in the parish. He declares that the priests there have no interest in Ireland. ‘It doesn’t count here apparently’, and added, ‘unemployment [is] very serious. The “Daily News” urges the setting up “unemployment committees” …’. Later, Canon Palmer, Ilford, Essex, wrote to Fr. Peter Bowe OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, Church Street, Dublin, seeking to have Fr. Albert come over to cover for one of his clerical assistants who is unwell. On 11 Oct. 1923 Fr. Palmer wrote: ‘I would gladly give him all accommodation and he could help us. In strict confidence with yourself I wish to say at the same time that if there is any radical objection to his coming or having facilities. I would not presume to ask you at all’. With letter from Fr. Peter Bowe to Fr. Albert granting permission to ‘absent yourself from the Province for the benefit of your health, and to go to Very Rev. Canon Palmer of Ilford … to help in Parochial Work during the absence of the Senior Curate, until the end of February 1924’. The file also includes a letter from Fr. Sylvester Mulligan OFM Cap. to Fr. Peter Bowe OFM Cap., regarding the sending of Fr. Albert to Ilford, Esssex. Some political references are made by Fr. Albert in a letter to Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. (4 Mar. 1924). He wrote: ‘I am able to follow the events pretty well. Tis an awful pity that the being in power of the Labour Party is not availed of to scrap or modify the Treaty – a united body at home could now get anything – not that Labour is pro-Irish. It is not, but … because of the support on which it depends it could not turn down a united Ireland – or a large section demanding it’

Letters to Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC, Provincial Minister, Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OSFC, Fr. Sylvester Mulligan OSFC, Fr. Laurence Dowling OSFC, Fr. Fiacre Brophy OSFC and other Capuchin friars regarding parish missions and retreats. Many of the requests from religious congregations and institutions. The letters refer to retreats in the South Parish (Cork), Eyrecourt (Galway), the Convent of the Poor Clares, Lynton (Devon), Our Lady of Sorrows Capuchin Friary, Peckham (London), Kilrooskey (Roscommon), Crosshaven (Cork), Athy (Kildare), Kinsale (Cork), the Sisters of Mercy Convent, Thurles (Tipperary), the Capuchin Friary, Pantasaph (Wales), Saint Alban’s Convent, Pontypool (Wales), Curragh Army Camp (Kildare), Dunfanaghy (Donegal), Dunmore East (Waterford), Bundoran (Donegal), Mooncoin (Kilkenny), Ballyshannon (Donegal), Sisters of Charity Convent (Dublin), Carmelite Convent, Tallaght (Dublin), Catholic Truth Society (Kerry), Loreto Convent, Navan (Meath), St. Joseph’s Daughters of the Cross Convent, Donaghmore (Tyrone), and the Little Sisters of the Poor Convent (Waterford).

Letter from Fr. Kevin OSF to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, seeking support for the building of the first local Franciscan Sisters’ convent at the Nsambya Mission in Kampala, Uganda. The appeal reads: ‘There is a great field of work to be done there, and we need the help of these native Sisters at all the missions so badly’.

Memorandum by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap., Provincial Secretary, referring to the discovery in the Church Street Archives in 1922 of a collection of papers labelled ‘Correspondence between Dr. Cullen and the Fathers relative to the New Church in North King Street’. Fr. Stanislaus refers to a loose folio sheet titled ‘Notabilia’ relating to the Baron Hale bequest which was the ‘only authentic expression of an obligation for Masses to be found … in the Archives’. (See CA CS/2/3/2). The memorandum affirms that the ‘Notabilia’ document was submitted by Fr. Stanislaus to a definitory meeting in November 1922 which ordered him to investigate the whereabouts of the investment and interest money referred to in the bequest. The memorandum reports Fr. Stanislaus’s findings in relation to the Hale bequest. It notes that in 1893 the legacy, which had been converted to stocks worth £181 11s 5d, was transferred to the Commissioners for the Reduction of National Debt and was subsequently paid to Jane E. Pratt, lawful sister and next of kin of Fr. Daniel Patrick O’Reilly OSFC, one of the priests in whose name the legacy was invested. Fr. Stanislaus concludes by affirming that ‘interest on the investment was drawn up in 1883 which warrants the assumption that the masses were likewise said up to that time’. With copies of the memorandum and transcription of the ‘Notabilia’ document made by Fr. Stanislaus on 10 Nov. 1921. One of the copies is endorsed by Fr. Stanislaus: ‘submitted to the General Definition, Rome, Decree of Condonation from the Sacred Congregation, dated, Feb. 22, 1927 [and signed by Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap.], appended’. The file also includes a typescript note suggesting that ‘Baron Hale’ may refer to Sir Matthew Hales, Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench. Some of the notes by Fr. Stanislaus also refer to the correspondence of Fr. Lawrence Gallerani, Irish Capuchin Commissary General, with Archbishop Paul Cullen, regarding the construction of St. Mary of the Angels.

Letter from Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap., Hermiston, Oregon, to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., regarding the disposition of Stanfield Church and the progress of building works on other churches in his ministry in Oregan. He wrote: ‘As soon as the weather moderates I will begin the building of the Church at Pilot Rock. I intended to call it Santa Clara but I will get a donation of $1,000 if I call it Saint Agnes. What’s in a name? I’ve been called many names myself, few of them as complimentary in the change as this one’.

Report by Fr. Declan McFadden OFM Cap. sent to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, on the progress of the Irish Capuchin mission in Barotseland, Northern Rhodesia. Reference is made to the difficulties encountered by the first missionaries (including Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap., Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap., Fr. Seraphin Nesdale OFM Cap. (1897-1980) and Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap.); the establishment of the Loanja mission; negotiations with government authorities and tribal leaders; the work of other missionary orders including the White Fathers and the Jesuits. Fr. Declan concludes ‘as regards the mission outlook in general in Barotseland, I must candidly state it is going to be a very tough problem. The whole territory is fearfully primitive and undeveloped. The only transport help of a convenient or modern touch that we have as an ally is a spasmodic lumber train which carries us from Livingstone to the Barotse border’.

Letter from Vincent Boulle, Linda Road, Claremont, Cape Province, to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, re the establishment of a Third Order Sodality in the Cape Province, South Africa. Reference is made to receptions into the Third Order made by Fr. Declan McFadden OFM Cap. (1901-1979) and Fr. Alban Cullen OFM Cap.