Showing 186 results

This section includes records relating to the financial and business affairs of the Capuchin Publications Office. The files include orders and receipts, account books and journals, associated with the printing and publishing of the 'Annual'.

The subseries comprises a small collection of papers relating to Aodh de Blacam, an author, journalist, editor, and politician. Aodh de Blacam (Harold Saunders Blackham) was born in London on 11 December 1891. He was born into a prominent Newry Protestant family but later rebelled against his upbringing, converted to Catholicism, and became involved with the Gaelic League in the English capital. In 1914 he moved to Ireland and emerged as a leading propagandist for the nationalist movement. Around this time, he also Gaelicised his name to Aodh Sandrach de Blacam and learned the Irish language. During the War of Independence, he worked as a propagandist for Arthur Griffith and was appointed editor of ‘Young Ireland’, a Sinn Féin newspaper which sought to encourage nationalistic sentiments in Irish children and young adults. He remained remarkably prolific in his journalistic and literary output throughout his life and produced two major two major political manifestos during the revolution: ‘Towards the Republic’ (1918) and ‘What Sinn Féin Stands For’ (1921).

De Blacam opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty and subsequently sided with the anti-Treaty IRA during the Civil War. He was interned by the Free State authorities in 1922. Following his release, de Blacam strongly identified with the political ideals of Éamon de Valera and Fianna Fáil. He continued his journalist career, serving as a book editor for the ‘Irish Times’ and regularly contributing articles to the ‘Irish Press’ and other newspapers and literary journals. De Blacam also wrote extensively for several Catholic periodicals such as ‘The Standard’ and the ‘Irish Rosary. The first edition of ‘The Capuchin Annual’ in 1930 carried two articles by de Blacam who forged a long-lasting friendship with Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap., the founding editor of the periodical. Moynihan was clearly an admirer of de Blacam’s writing and published several of his articles in various Capuchin publications. De Blacam’s major published books included ‘Gaelic literature surveyed’ (1929) and ‘The Black North’ (1938). He died in Dublin on 13 January 1951. His funeral was attended by many notable political figures including Taoiseach John A. Costello and his predecessor Éamon de Valera. He was buried in New Mellifont Abbey in County Louth. De Blacam’s final article, an account of the closing ceremonies of the Holy Year celebrations in Rome, was published posthumously in ‘The Capuchin Annual’ (1950-1).

The material listed here was assembled by Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap. following de Blacam’s death. The subseries includes drafts of de Blacam’s final articles for ‘The Capuchin Annual’ along with biographies, obituaries, tribute articles, correspondence, photographs, and ephemera.

The sub-series contains a select collection of publications formerly held by the editors of 'The Capuchin Annual' in the Publications Office. It is probable that many books, periodicals and journals were transferred to the Provincial Library in the Capuchin Friary on Church Street. Many others may have been discarded.

The subseries comprises a small collection of papers relating to Fr. Michael P. O’Hickey (An tAthair Micheál P. Ó hIceadha), an Irish priest, academic, and Irish language campaigner.

O’Hickey was born in Carrickbeg near Carrick-on-Suir in County Waterford on 12 March 1861. Both his parents knew Irish as did most of the adult population of Carrickbeg, but by the time of his birth Irish was receding rapidly in his locality. However, the young O’Hickey did manage to acquire a certain knowledge of the language. He studied for the priesthood in St. John’s College in Waterford and was ordained in 1884. He ministered on the Scottish mission until 1893. On his return to Ireland, he became an active member and vice president of Conradh na Gaeilge (Gaelic League) and studied under the well-known Irish scholar Seán Pléimeann (1814-1897). O’Hickey also became a member of the Royal Irish Academy. In 1896 he was appointed Professor of Irish in St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth. O’Hickey was convinced that it was possible to revive the use of Irish as a widely spoken language. However, after several clashes with the Catholic hierarchy and the Maynooth College authorities, he was dismissed in 1909 from his position as Professor of Irish, for his conduct in a controversy about making Irish compulsory for matriculation in the newly founded National University of Ireland (NUI). He publicly and repeatedly implied that episcopal members of the senate of the NUI who opposed making Irish compulsory for matriculation were traitors to Ireland and personally corrupt. He received support from several prominent Irish nationalists (including Eoin MacNeill and Patrick Pearse), Irish language activists, and some of his colleagues including Maynooth’s Theology Professor, Fr. Walter McDonald. He appealed his dismissal to the Vatican, but his case was ultimately rejected. O’Hickey subsequently returned to Waterford, and he died in Portlaw on 19 November 1916. He was buried in a family plot in Carrickbeg.

The material listed here was assembled by Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap., the editor of ‘The Capuchin Annual’, and includes a bound volume containing several of O’Hickey’s pamphlets on Irish education published by the Gaelic League. A subscription list for a testimonial established by O’Hickey’s friends and supporters following his dismissal from his position in Maynooth is also extant.

The subseries comprises a small collection of papers (including photographs) relating to Dom Columba Marmion OSB, an Irish Benedictine abbot and spiritual writer.

Joseph Marmion was born in Dublin on 1 April 1858 to an Irish father and a French mother. On the completion of his secondary studies, he was received at the seminary in Clonliffe College in Dublin in January 1874. He completed his preparation for the priesthood in Rome and was ordained there in 1881. On returning to Dublin, he was appointed professor of philosophy at Clonliffe. On 21 November 1886 he entered the newly founded Belgian abbey of Maredsous, with which, by virtue of the Benedictine vow of stability, he was to be associated for the rest of his life. On commencing his life as a Benedictine, he took Columba as his religious name. The first thirteen years of his monastic life (1886-99) were spent at Maredsous itself. In 1899 he was sent as prior and professor of theology to the abbey of Mont-César in Louvain, Belgium, where he remained for ten years. He was appointed the third abbot of Maredsous in 1909, and he remained there for the rest of his life. He died in Maredsous on 20 January 1923. The first of Marmion’s great spiritual books, ‘Christ, the life of the soul’, was published to considerable acclaim in 1916. This was followed in quick succession by ‘Christ in His mysteries’ (1919), and ‘Christ the ideal of the monk’ (1922). Collectively, these books are seen as classics of Christian spirituality. Dom Columba Marmion OSB was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 3 September 2000.

The subseries comprises a small collection of records relating to various Irish landlord defence associations and related loyalist and unionist political organisations in the late nineteenth century. The collection includes mostly printed circulars, fliers, and ephemera sent to members of these organisations. The goal of these interrelated associations was to defend the rights and interests of landed proprietors in Ireland. The organisations were set up in response to the activities of the Land League, a tenant farmer movement, which had as its primary aim the reform and eventual abolition of landlordism in Ireland.

The collection includes records generated by the Property Defence Association (PDA) which was formed in Dublin in December 1880 to assist landlords targeted by the Land League or by rural agitation in general. Led by James Stopford, 5th Earl of Courtown (1823-1914), the association served writs on tenants, provided (often armed) caretakers for evicted holdings, supplied labourers to boycotted landlords, and bought stock and farms at sheriffs’ sales. The Orange Emergency Committee, established by the loyalist Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, also in December 1880, had similar functions to the Property Defence Association. Both the PDA and Orange Emergency Committee were subscription-based aid organisations. The Irish Landowners' Convention was set up in early 1888 to protect the interests of landowners in the face of agrarian agitation and legislative reforms which enabled tenant proprietorship. James Hamilton , 2nd Duke of Abercorn (1838-1913), was elected its first president and he led the organisation for nearly a decade.

The collection also includes a small number of records relating to the Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union (ILPU), a unionist political organisation, established to oppose the nationalist Home Rule movement. The ILPU was formed in Dublin in May 1885 by a small number of southern businessmen, landowners, and academics. It sought to unite Liberals and Conservatives on a common platform of maintenance of the union between Great Britain and Ireland. The Irish Unionist Alliance was founded in 1891 by ILPU members, which it replaced. The Irish Unionist Alliance (IUA), also known as the Irish Unionist Party, was led for much of its existence by Colonel Edward James Saunderson (1837-1906) and later by William St John Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton (1856-1942).

Finally, the collection also includes a small number of fliers and printed ephemera relating to by-elections for the constituency of Trinity College (University of Dublin) in 1875 and in 1887. The college constituency was dominated by a Conservative and Unionist electorate. In January 1875, Edward Gibson, later 1st Baron Ashbourne (1837-1913), was elected for the Conservatives to serve as MP for Trinity College, Dublin. Dodgson Hamilton Madden (1840-1928) was elected Conservative MP for the university in the July 1887 by-election.

Internal evidence suggests that this material was originally assembled by John Ribton Garstin (1836-1917), a landlord and unionist, who served as High Sheriff of County Louth from 1880 to 1881. It has however not been ascertained how these records were acquired by Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap., the editor of ‘The Capuchin Annual’.