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Letter from Henry O’Hanrahan, prisoner no. q. 150, Lewes Prison, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. and Fr. Augustine Hayden OFM Cap., thanking the Capuchin fathers for their services during the Rising. He also refers to increasing clerical support for the republican cause. O’Hanrahan fought at Jacob’s Biscuit factory during the Rising. The letter reads:
‘Just a short note from an Irish felon to thank you both very much indeed for your many enquiries, for your words, and also for your many kindnesses to my dear mother and sisters. It will indeed be a while till we here, our friends, or Ireland forget what we owe to “Church St[reet]” – of course it did not and does not surprise some of us, even though we had not met some you till a very memorable Sunday. That indeed was a Sunday which we will all remember till we “surrender” to the God of Nations and I wonder what has He in store for our little country. Would we had some of your over here. … on that particular Sunday – the difference – but then in all her struggles religious and otherwise – Ireland’s friends were the [Religious] Orders. Thank God, from all we hear the young men of Maynooth etc. are “making good” and God knows its time.
Now I know you are pretty conversant with our life etc. here and perhaps before you read this you will have seen or heard of [Gerard] Crofts who is next for invaliding and as I know you are both such friends and also that you are aware space (even in paper) with us is limited, you will excuse my coupling you in this short note’.

Card signed by ‘Constance de Markievicz, I.R.A.’ and Kathleen Clarke. Dated at Holloway Jail, Dec. 1918’. With cover opened by the censor.

Letters from Constance Markievicz, Holloway Jail, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., Church St., Dublin, referring to her conditions of imprisonment and conveying her good wishes to Fr. Albert, Fr. Augustine Hayden OFM Cap., and Sister Brigid. She declares that ‘when we free our country I shall start a movement for the reformation of jails and jailors! I am proud of being selected as a candidate. I wonder whether I should have a better chance of election in or out of jail?’ With 2 covers.

Letter from Austin Stack, prisoner no. 148, Manchester Prison, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., thanking the ‘friars of Church St.’ for the interest they have shown in their incarcerated ‘fellow countrymen and women’. Reference is also made to their prison conditions and to prisoner Fionán Lynch. With cover. The letter reads:
‘Your letter (which was written on the day following our removal from Belfast) was sent on after me to this place and I received it on the 3rd. I should not have got it at all in Belfast the way things were there.
Of course we deem it good of you to think of us in this way but this is only what I should expect of you and the other Friars of Church Street and I hope that we may prove worthy of the interest in us shown by our fellow countrymen and women.
There are ten of us here (including Fionán Lynch whom you know). We are devitalised of course after fourteen weeks solitary confinement in Belfast, but otherwise we are fairly well. A month hence I expect to be fit again with God’s help.
Our good Capuchin fathers will ever be kindly remembered by the Irish prisoners and their friends, God bless you … Aibhistín de Staic’.

Letter from Robert Barton, Mountjoy Gaol, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., stating that ‘prison life is no affliction to me. I much prefer the rest, seclusion and study of a cell to discoursing in public platforms’. He also discusses his reading of economic literature and affirms that he is learning Irish.

Note from C. Burgess [Cathal Brugha], Dublin Castle Hospital, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., Franciscan Capuchin Church, Church St. It reads: ‘I should be obliged if you dropped in here any time tomorrow or Friday to hear my confession. As there has been a new regulation made here with regard to the admission of the clergy it might be as well if you brought this card with you’. During the Rising Brugha was severely wounded by a hand grenade, as well as by multiple gunshot wounds, and was initially not considered likely to survive. He recovered over the next year, but was left with a permanent limp.

Photographic copy print of a letter from Erskine Childers, Beggars’ Bush Barracks, Dublin, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., declaring that he is ‘to die tomorrow at 7’. He states he will ‘die happy and undefeated and at peace with God and men’. Fr. Albert referred to this letter in his statement titled ‘The Case of Farther Albert, O.S.F.C.’, defending his actions and declaring his ‘absolute impartiality’ during the War of Independence and later at the outbreak of Civil War hostilities in Dublin in 1922 (CA IR-1-1-2-4-6).

Letter from Liam Mellows, Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, to his mother. Written at 5 a.m., shortly before his execution. It reads: ‘The time is short and much I would like to say must go unsaid. But you will understand in such moments heart speaks to heart. At 3.30 this morning we (Dick Barrett, Rory O’Connor, Joe McKelvey and I) were informed that we were to be “executed as a reprisal”. … I go to join Tone and Emmett, the Fenians, Tom Clarke, Connolly, Pearse, Kevin Barry and Childers. My last thoughts will be on God, and Ireland, and you. …. I had hopes that some day I might rest in some quiet place – beside Grandfather and Grandmother in Castletown (Co. Wexford), not amidst the wordly pomps [sic] of Glasnevin but if it is to be the prison clay, it is all the sweeter for many of our best lie here …’.

Letter from Patrick Holohan, ‘Number: 975, hut 2, Irish Prisoner … Frongoch, North Wales’ to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., Church Street, Dublin, referring to the provision of religious services and giving news of conditions and prisoners at the camp. Holohan adds ‘I was glad to hear that you were with Heuston when he died as I was very fond of him. It is delightful to see all our leaders being converted to the Catholic faith’. With cover which has been opened by the censor.

Copy letter from Roger Casement, Pentonville Prison, to his chaplain, Fr. E.F. Murnane, regarding the progress of his appeal against the indictment of high treason. With a letter (2 Aug. 1916) from E.F. Murnane, The Presbytery, Dockhead, [Bermondsey, London, S.E.], in the same hand, to George Gavan Duffy regarding Casement’s last hours. Includes a copy extract from a letter from the Prison Chaplain giving a brief account of Casement’s piety before his execution. The file also includes an original letter from Roger Casement, Wellington Club, Grosvenor Place, S.W., to Francis H. Cowper (16 Dec. 1903) declaring that all is well him ‘but fearful Congo row is brewing and I shall be the storm centre I fear’. He adds 'Give the brindled John my love and a kiss on his black nose. I wish I were in Lisbon now …’. The ‘brindled John’ was presumably a domestic cat or dog owned by Cowper; brindled referring to a specific type of patchy colouring most commonly associated with the patterned fur of cats. It is unknown how this letter was acquired by the Capuchin friars but it is likely that it was given to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. for safekeeping by an nationalist acquaintance.