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Letters of Fr. Alban Cullen OFM Cap. (1902-1957). The main correspondent is Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister. Other correspondents include Fr. Kieran O’Callaghan OFM Cap. and Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap. Provincial Minister. The subjects include: the progress of the Irish Capuchin mission in South Africa, particularly the ‘coloured localities of Athlone, Parrow and Claremont’; arrangements for the opening of the mission in Barotseland, Northern Rhodesia; the language difficulties. Fr. Alban wrote ‘The big drawback of the Church in South Africa has been the dearth of English-speaking priests. Cape Town has them. Port Elizabeth has some. Johannesburg has a few. But almost everywhere else, French, German, Dutch have possession’. (21 Mar. 1931); requests for mass stipends (18 Sept. 1931); information concerning the forty square miles of the Capuchin mission in South Africa including ‘Athlone, Crawford, Jamestown, Belgravia Estate, the Welcome Estate and Langa’. (6 Nov. 1931); the construction of churches, mission schools and orphanages; the establishment of a canonical foundation by the Irish Capuchins in Athlone, Cape Town. (14 Jan. 1932); the deprivations faced by the ‘native population’ in Cape Town. (26 Feb. 1932); the education of the coloured population of Cape Province, South Africa. (18 Mar. 1932); Fr. Alban’s attempts to hire John McCormack, the renowned Irish tenor, to perform in aid of the poor of Athlone Parish, Cape Town. (5 Aug. 1932); on the necessity of holding property in the Athlone Vicariate. Fr. Alban affirms that ‘the Athlone Catholics are poor, miserable coloured native people on the verge of starvation’. (25 Nov. 1932); the building of the Church of St. Mary of the Angels in Athlone, Cape Town. (9 June 1933); Fr. Alban’s work as a missionary since his ordination in 1925. He wrote ‘I have devoted my time exclusively to the missionary life – almost four years with the Californian Indians, and almost five with the coloured and native people of Athlone’. (27 July 1934); the visitation of Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap. to South Africa. (6 Sept. 1935); his desire to return to Ireland. He reminds Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, that he is ‘the last of the first three [priests] who came here in 1929’. (6 June 1951). The file also includes a letter from Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, transmitting news from Fr. Alban re the number of communicants in Athlone parish. (19 Nov. 1931).

Costs of Thomas J. Furlong, 11 Eustace Street, solicitor, to Fr. Peter (Edward) Bowe OSFC and others for preparing a deed of conveyance to vest Church property in nine members of the community as joint tenants and for a power of attorney from Fr. Anthony (John) Travers OSFC (resident in Tasmania) to Fr. Aloysius (William) Travers OSFC. Total cost: £33 5s 4d. 2 copies. With letters from Thomas J. Furlong to Fr. Angelus Healy OSFC and Fr. Paul Neary OSFC referring to a deed executed by Miss Maher on 19 Aug. 1897 conveying the property bequeathed to her following the death of her brother (Fr. Patrick Joseph Columbus Maher OSFC, died 10 Sept. 1894) to the Capuchin community on Church Street.

Memoranda regarding the history and work of the Conference of St. Francis (founded in 1905 by Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap.) in the environs of Greek Street and the Church Street Friary. The note refers to the building of Assisi House adjacent to the Greek Street flat complex opposite St. Michan’s Church of Ireland in which a boys’ club was founded in 1940. The note affirms: ‘In 1963 the premises known as Assisi House had to be demolished to make way for the widening of Church Street and since then we have not been able to find suitable accommodation to carry on our work’.

The file includes:
• An article on the Report of the Commission on Youth Unemployment. The Commission included Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. and Archbishop John Charles McQuaid. 'Irish Times', 14 Aug. 1951.
• Clipping of an aerial view showing Smithfield and its surroundings. The landmarks include St. Mary of the Angels, Capuchin Friary, Church Street, and St. Paul’s Church on Arran Quay. 'Irish Independent', 26 Nov. 1954.

Photostats of letters from Henry and Richard Doyle to their father on the occasion of Fr. Mathew’s visit to London in 1843. The letters date to August 1843 and have illustrations showing scenes from Fr. Mathew’s visit. The volume was presented to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. (1870-1957) to mark the centenary of Fr. Mathew’s death on 6 December 1856.

• Souvenir programme for the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association Father Mathew Centenary Celebrations in Cork on Sunday, 24 June 1956. Printed, 25 pp.
• Souvenir programme for centenary celebrations for the death of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC. The events took place in City Hall in Cork on 9 Dec. 1956 and included an address by the Most Rev. David Mathew, Titular Bishop of Apamea. Printed, 3 pp. 2 copies.
• Newspaper clippings relating to the centenary of Fr. Mathew’s death. The file includes:
Fr. Hilary McDonagh OFM Cap., ‘The mighty moral miracle wrought by Father Theobald Mathew’, 6 Dec. 1956.
‘Cork Centenary Celebrations’.
Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap., ‘The secret of Father Theobald Mathew – Capuchin / What his Franciscianism meant to him’, 'Evening Echo', 7 Dec. 1956.
‘Fr. Mathew: One of the great men of history’, 'Cork Examiner', 10 Dec. 1956.
‘Ireland’s Great Tribute to the Apostle of Temperance’, 'Cork Examiner', 25 June 1956. A pictorial supplement.
’60,000 Pioneers pay tribute to Fr. Mathew’, Cork Examiner, 25 June 1956. Clippings, 12 pp.
• Letter from Rev. Patrick J. Hamell, Honorary Secretary of the Father Mathew Union, St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap., re preparations for the celebration of the Father Mathew Centenary. 15 Sept. 1956. Typescript, 2 pp.
• Offprint of an article by Fr. Matthew Flynn OFM Cap., ‘Theobald Mathew OFM Cap. / A Centenary Tribute’, published in the 'Irish Ecclesiastical Record' (1956). Printed, 13 pp.

• Notes by Séamus Ó Casaide (dated 26 June 1930) referring to extracts from the 'Spirit of the Freeholder' (Cork), 1823-3. The extracts refer to the Society of St. Joseph connected with Fr. Mathew and the South Friary and to the possible donation of an altar for Fr. Mathew’s new church (Holy Trinity) in Cork. One of the extracts reads: ‘The new shop opened by Father Mathew at the “Botany” Garden’s, as they are called, is doing a world of all business. So beloved is this Holy Friar, it would seem as if people die purposely to encrease [sic] his custom – not an hour in the day but you’ll see a corpse walking to its long lane. "Freeholder", 19th March 1831’. Manuscript, 4 pp.
• Letter from Séamus Ó Casaide to Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. referring to a copy of the ‘pulpit criticism’ of Fr. Mathew. 23 June 1930. Manuscript, 2 pp.
• Copy extracts from 'The Freeholder', re the early life of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC as a preacher in Cork. The extracts date from 23 Dec. 1825-31 Mar. 1828. Typescript, 3 pp.
• An essay by Clodagh Murphy, St. Leo’s Convent of Mercy, Carlow, on the life of Fr. Theobald Mathew. Manuscript, 5 pp.
• Note re the register of ascribed members of the Institute of Charity (Rosminians) which notes the enrolment of Fr. Mathew on 27 June 1846. Manuscript, 1 p.
• 'The Catholic Bulletin', xxi, no. 8 (Aug. 1931). An article by Mrs William O’Brien titled ‘A tragic pair’ refers to a letter from the wife of Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) to Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC. Printed, pp 737-832.
• Letter from Henry Smyth to a Mr Kelly referring to the potential to publish a memoir of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC. Smyth affirms that it first appeared in the 'Church of Ireland Gazette'. 27 Sept. 1909. Manuscript, 3 pp.
• Letter to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. claiming that Fr. Mathew held his first instruction on Drinan Street ‘opposite his own house’ in Cork. The letter is undated and unsigned. Manuscript, 4 pp.