Showing 249 results

A collection of records mostly relating to the Temperance Sodality of the Sacred Thirst attached to St. Mary of the Angels, Capuchin Friary, Church Street, Dublin.

Minute book of the committee and public meetings of the Total Abstinence Sodality. The reverse of the front cover is annotated: ‘Temperance Society of the Sacred Thirst of the Lord Jesus Christ attached to the Church of Our Lady of the Angels, Church Street, founded by the Very Rev. Albert Mitchell OSFC, President, Dublin, June 1880, to which was added The Father Mathew Temperance Hall, Halston Street, opened solemnly Monday, 14th February 1881’. The first page contains the rules of the society as laid down by Fr. Albert Mitchell OSFC. The minute book reports the principal decisions and resolutions passed by the committee at their weekly meetings particularly in respect of financial and membership matters and later in relation to the funding for the construction of Father Mathew Memorial Hall on Church Street. The volume includes a copy of the printed 'First Annual Report' of the sodality (see CA HA/1/1/2) and a copy of a letter from Most Rev. Edward McCabe, Archbishop of Dublin, to Fr. Albert Mitchell OSFC, 49 North King Street, commending the work of the Halston Street Temperance Society (22 Feb. 1882). On 14 Feb. 1883, a report noted that ‘we have at present on the roll upwards of 1,130 men and 1,000 women and although some have fallen away from our ranks still it is satisfactory to be in the position to state that a large number have remained faithful to their pledge’. Other newspaper clippings pasted into volume include a report of a large meeting of total abstinence societies at St. Finbarr’s Hall, Charlotte Quay, Cork. With a copy of the agreement with J. T. Russell, Sandford Terrace, Ranelagh, for the lease of 3 Halston Street at the yearly rent of £16 for 31 years in trust for the Temperance Society of the Sacred Thirst (31 Jan. 1881). The minutes were routinely signed by the President, Fr. Albert Mitchell OSFC, and later by his successor, Fr. Columbus Maher OSFC.

Register of subscriptions paid by members of the Father Mathew Temperance Hall, Church Street. Entries are listed under the name and address of the member, monthly subscriptions paid and individual totals for the year. Yearly totals, accounts and summaries are also extant in the volume. The inside cover and fly leaf have printed ballot papers for elections to the Hall Committee for the years 1907-10; 1912; 1913; 1915. Pagination has been added to the volume until circa page 247. The final page of the volume notes the transfer to ‘a new register in 1945’. Gilt title to front cover: ‘Father Mathew OSFC, Memorial Hall, Register of Members and their Subscriptions’.

Calendar for 1921 issued by the Father Mathew Total Abstinence Sodality, Church Street. The calendar provides information on subscribing to Father Mathew Hall (a temperance sodality for men) and to St. Brigid’s Hall (a temperance sodality for women).

Report of the Halston Street Total Abstinence Sodality founded by Fr. Albert Mitchell OSFC in 1881. The report refers to the efforts to improve and renovate the Hall since the sodality took possession of the building. The report reads ‘When we took possession of this place it was in a very sad and forlorn condition, so dilapidated by time, and the many uses it was put to (I believe its last use was that of a blacksmith’s forge)’. The report also provides figures for income and expenditure. The figures read: debt: £35 7s 11½d; expenditure: £255 12 2½d. It also notes that the pledge has been given to over 1,000 men in the Hall and to over 900 in St. Michan’s Church, Halston Street. With a typescript copy of said report.

Minute book of the Committee of the Total Abstinence Sodality, Father Mathew Hall, Church Street. The volume includes various newspaper clippings reporting the laying of the foundation stone (2 Feb. 1890) and the opening of Father Mathew Hall, Church Street (25 Jan. 1891). The volume includes clippings from the 'Catholic Times', the 'Freeman’s Journal' and the 'Daily Sketch'. The volume also includes manuscript and newspaper clipping reports of weekly public meetings of the sodality in the Hall. The minutes report resolutions in respect of financial accounts, general administration and the ministering of the pledge to members. The meetings were ordinarily chaired by Fr. Columbus Maher OSFC, President of the Sacred Thirst Abstinence League. The final pages of the volume contain newspaper clippings reporting on the death of Fr. Columbus on 10 Sept. 1894. The clippings also cover his funeral and the various tributes paid to him for his work in promoting temperance.

Flier from the Halston Street Total Abstinence Society seeking subscriptions to fund the building of a new Hall on a site ‘secured at the junction of Church Street and Bedford Street’. The flier notes that ‘until now the work [of the Sodality] has been done in a wretchedly small hall which is no longer available for the perpetuation and increase of this great social reform’. The flier also provides a list of subscriptions for the fund.

Twelfth annual report of the Father Mathew Hall, Church Street, in 1891. The report notes that ‘in a few days prior to our last annual meeting, this whole building was formally opened by His Grace the Archbishop of Dublin for the advancement of the Total Abstinence cause, and of our Holy Religion in this district of the city’. The report refers to the various fundraising efforts undertaken in support of the local temperance movement. The file also includes a supplemental report (1892). The supplemental report states that an annual meeting ‘should have been held on the third Sunday in January but … His Eminence Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, Archbishop of Westminster, had gone to reap in a better world the reward of a saintly life in this’. The reports include references to attendances at weekly temperance meetings and to the staging of various lectures, exhibitions and performances in the Hall.

Rule book of the Sacred Thirst Sodality attached to the Father Mathew Hall, Church Street. The introduction notes that the mission of Father Mathew ‘demands a nobler monument than a “storied urn or animated bust” and to the wide dissemination of his principles, which this Hall, was founded to foster and perpetuate’. The rule book states that the sodality ‘strengthened by united prayer, frequentation of the Sacraments, holds monthly meets in the Church and weekly meetings in the Father Mathew OSFC Memorial Hall, Church Street, Dublin’. An annotation on page 11 affirms that the constitution vesting the Hall and all other property in six trustees was amended in 1926. ‘See Committee Minutes of the Hall’. The rule book was probably prepared by Fr. Columbus Maher OSFC, President. The front cover has an ink drawing of the Hall fronting onto Church Street.