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The sub-series consists of correspondence, clippings, programmes, and printed materials related to the Feis Maitiú in Cork.

Programmes for the Father Mathew Feis, Cork. The printed programmes include timetables and syllabuses of competitions, and souvenir publications. The programmes list the dates and times of the competitions and the names of the various judges and adjudicators. The following programmes are extant: 1927-8; 1932; 1937-8; 1941; 1946; 1961; 1963-4; 1968; 1971-9;
1980-9; 1990-9; 2000-13; 2015.

Letters from Arnold Bax (1883-1953), 155 Fellows Road, London, and Grosvenor Hotel, Chester, to Fr. Michael O’Shea OFM Cap., President, Father Mathew Hall, Cork. In 1929 the Feis Maitiú Corcaigh invited Bax, a well-known composer and poet, to become an adjudicator marking the beginning of a 24-year friendship with the prestigious local music festival. Most of the correspondence relates to arrangements for the Cork Feis and other matters of musical interest. The file includes fifteen original items in Bax’s hand. With contemporary manuscript and later typescript copies of Bax’s letters. The file also includes a typescript appreciation of Arnold Bax possibly written by Fr. O’Shea. It reads ‘The way he [Bax] came to Cork was simple enough. I attribute his coming to the initiative of Frau Fleischmann in the meeting of the Feis Maitiú Committee that was considering adjudicators for the year 1929. I remember at the time that it was mentioned that Bax had rather a Celtic strain in his compositions and the he would like to come’. Also includes a newspaper cutting of a letter from Bax to the 'Daily Telegraph' referring to a performance by a choir at the Catholic Cathedral in Cork. In Irish and English.

A small collection of records relating to the Temperance Hall built on the grounds of the Capuchin Friary, Rochestown, County Cork. The Hall was officially opened for public use on 15 December 1913 by the Lord Mayor of Cork and Fr. Thomas Dowling OSFC (1874-1951), Provincial Minister. It consisted of a concert-platform, an auditorium, and spacious committee rooms which could also be used as classrooms. Despite the decline of the temperance movement, the Hall continued to function as a venue for local drama, music and dancing productions. Fr. Declan McFadden OFM Cap. (1901-1979) later strove to re-organise the management of the building which changed its name to Marian Hall in the early 1950s. Having laid vacant for many years, the former Temperance Hall at Rochestown was finally demolished in the 1990s.

The cutting refers to the performance of the juvenile pantomime in the Hall attended by the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Cork and by Fr. Pius Duggan OSFC, guardian, Rochestown Capuchin Friary.

Cutting from the 'Cork Weekly Examiner' referring to the presentation of a framed address to Fr. Sylvester Mulligan OSFC (1875-1950), former President of the Temperance Hall in Rochestown, on the occasion of his departure for Dublin to take charge of Father Mathew Hall on Church Street. The framed address is extant in the Irish Capuchin Archives. The newspaper article reads: ‘The address was the joint work of two members of the Cork School of Art, the illumination being designed and executed by Mr Sam Martin, and the frame designed and carved by Mr Michael Galligan. The article also includes a photographic print of Fr. Sylvester.

Fliers for concerts, recitals and Father Mathew celebrations at the Temperance Hall, Rochestown, County Cork. The coloured fliers were printed by Hickey & Byrne, Cork.

This section contains deeds and leases relating to the acquisition of property by the Capuchins on Queen Street (later Father Mathew Street) in Cork. Some of the deeds relate to the premises known as the ‘Protestant Hall’, subsequently called the ‘Assembly Rooms’, situated on South Mall directly behind Holy Trinity Church. The construction of this building can be traced to a religious controversy in 1858 when the Committee for the Athenaeum, now the Cork Opera House, refused permission to host a public lecture by Alessandro Gavazzi (1809-1899), an Italian Protestant preacher. The Committee did not apparently concur with the anti-Catholic tone of Gavazzi’s speeches. Many of Cork’s Protestants were outraged at this refusal and decided to build a Hall for the use of all the citizens of the city interested in preserving free speech. Francis Bernard, 3rd Earl of Bandon (1810-1877), laid the foundation of stone in 1860 and the Hall opened on 12 April 1861. The plot of ground was roughly L-shaped with a frontage onto the South Mall. However, the entrance to the Hall, located at 22 South Mall, was not completed until 1869. Richard Rolt Brash (1817-1876) was the architect. The 'Irish Builder' published an engraving (above) of the building in 1869 and noted that ‘The hall was erected some eight years ago, from the designs of Mr. Richard R. Brash, M.R.I.A., but the entrance leading to it from the South Mall was never completed; it is now proposed to cover in the entrance, which is 80 feet long and 20 feet wide, and to erect a reading-room and other offices over the space. The new buildings have been designed by the same architect, and have been contracted for by Mr. Robert Walker, builder, of Cork. The front will be executed in Henderson’s white brick and Portland stone, the plinth and bands in white limestone’.

Many events were held in the Hall over the years including operas, music recitals, and public lectures. The Assembly Rooms was also the location for the first screening of a motion picture in Cork in 1896. It functioned as a public cinema from 1911 until the mid-1960s. The Hall was run by an Association and elected trustees who resolved at a special meeting held in March 1964 to sell the property at a public auction. The Capuchins subsequently purchased the premises for £20,000 (See CA HT/2/1/1/36). The interior of the Hall was completely refurbished in 1970 but the external fabric of the building was retained. Students from St. Francis Training Centre opened a coffee shop on the premises in 1989. Later, it became a restaurant known as ‘The Assembs’. Threshold, the National Housing Agency founded by Fr. Donal O’Mahony OFM Cap. (1936-2010), took over the building in 2005.

Sketch map of St. Joseph’s Cemetery ‘5 acres 2 roods 0 perches, late botanic gardens, representatives of Rev. Fr. Theobald Mathew’, bordered by ‘South Spittal Lands’ and by ‘the back road to the cemetery called on [the] city map “Tory Top Lane”’. The map also shows various numbered denominations of land possibly on the former Botanic Gardens' site. A numbered schedule of deeds and lease (nos. 3-16), possibly relating to the aforementioned site, is extant on the reverse of the sketch map.

Flier marking the Golden Jubilee of the foundation of the Third Order of St. Francis attached to Holy Trinity Church, Father Mathew Quay, Cork. The flier includes an address from Fr. Finbarr O’Callaghan OSFC (1879-1963), Spiritual Director. It reads: ‘On October 4th, 1866, Father Edward (Tommins) OSFC of Kilkenny – a saintly, simple-souled Capuchin Priest – received to membership of the Third Order, 5 young men, the pioneers of the Congregation. Of these pioneers – some of whom entered the First Order subsequently and are known as Brothers Felix and Joseph. … During the past 50 years the Congregation has steadily developed and today it numbers nearly 1,000 members’.