Showing 332 results

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.

Letters from Kathleen Clarke (wife of Tom Clarke), 15 Barrington Street, Limerick, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., mostly concerning family news. She also wrote: ‘Limerick does not agree with me. I am tired all the time here. I have an unsettled feel here too … . I find it hard to realise that my home and everything is gone, the only thing left is hope, and if our hopes for Ireland’s future are fulfilled the sacrifices will have been worth the making’. She also refers to Ernest Blythe: ‘We had hoped for better for him. I suppose he is left Arbour Hill by this and there would be no use in writing to him

Passes signed by Mervyn Richard Wingfield, 8th Viscount Powerscourt, Assistant Provost Marshal, Dublin, permitting Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap. and Fr. Columbus Murphy OFM Cap. to travel between ‘Dublin and England via North Wall or Kingston’ and to the ‘Capuchin Convent, Church Street’.

The poem reads:
‘Thy favours still, O Lord bestow;
Through Mary’s hands may grace still flow;
Give me the Cross or pain or woe,
But give to Eire Liberty’.

A leather bandolier reputed to have been used by an Irish Volunteer during the 1916 Rising. Retrieved from the gallery of St. Mary of the Angels, Church Street, Dublin. The bandolier has five pouches for the storage of ammunition.

File containing illustrations for 'The Capuchin Annual' by Fr. Gerald McCann OFM Cap. (1910-1958). These humorous black-ink drawings depict aspects of Capuchin Franciscan life and were regularly published in the 'Annual'. Fr. Gerald also served as assistant-editor of the publication. The themes include Christmas festivities, pranks and mischiefs involving Capuchins (some of the friars depicted, including Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap., were known to Fr. Gerald), sports, music, everyday chores and religious rituals.

Letter from Fr. Xavier Reardon OFM Cap. (1899-1986) to Fr. Henry Anglin OFM Cap. enclosing photographs for use in an article on Capuchin missionaries in India. The letter is dated 22 Nov. 1954. The file includes the following images:

• The new Church of St. Anthony in Delhi.
• The Most Rev. Sylvester Mulligan OFM Cap., Archbishop of Delhi-Simla, on a visit to a school in Karnal, India.
• Fr. Xavier with catechists in 1946.
• Schools among the Bhil people in West India.
• Bhilala people in Central India.
• Archbishop Mulligan on visitation in a village outside Delhi.
• Fr. Theodore Murphy OFM Cap. (1912-1993) in a local village.
• Holy Family Hospital in Delhi founded by the Medical Missionaries of Mary.
• Archbishop Mulligan performing a baptism in Khera Khurd outside Delhi (negative).

File of tributes to Richard King compiled for 'The Capuchin Annual' (1975). Includes contributions by M.L. Dunne, Monsignor T.J. McMahon, Patrick Heney, Ernest Keegan, Richard Corcoran, John McKenna, Canon R. Carroll, Kevin C. McCourt and Louis C. Peppard. The file also includes a copy letter from Angela O’Brien, Irish Society for Design and Craftwork, to Alison King conveying the Society’s sympathies on the death of her husband (15 Apr. 1974).

Letters from Mary MacSwiney (Máire Nic Shuibhne, 1872-1942) to Fr. Henry Rope. Two of the letters are copies (Rope notes that the copies were made in 1947 and that he deposited the originals in the archives of the Pontifical Irish College in Rome). One of the copy letters (dated 21 Nov. 1922) refers to Mary MacSwiney’s treatment by the Free State authorities. It reads ‘The hardest part of my trial here is being deprived of the Sacraments as I have not succeeded in finding a priest who will be satisfied to hear the confession of my sins and let my political convictions alone’. The original letter (26 Oct. 1930) refers to the ‘terrible airship disaster’ involving R 101, a British rigid airship. The disaster claimed the lives of forty-eight of the fifty-four people on board including Fr. Henry Rope’s younger brother, Squadron Leader Frederick Michael Rope.

Letters from George Noble Plunkett (1851-1948), 40 Elgin Road, Dublin, to Fr. Henry Rope. The letters include references to Plunkett’s desire to establish an ‘Academy of Christian Art’ in Dublin, Catholic literature, Father Rope’s visits to the Plunkett residence, and to contemporary political matters and public affairs in both Britain and Ireland. A recurring theme in the correspondence is Plunkett’s continuing republican opposition to the post-Treaty settlement in Ireland. An extract from a letter
written on 21 November 1929 reads:

‘I don’t want to write about politics, but I remind you that “if you want peace, you must prepare for war”; and, that a resolute nation, whose spokesmen refuse to accept threats, generally secures its liberty. We had won, when [Arthur] Griffith and [Michael] Collins surrendered: I have been assured of this by well informed unionists. I doubt that any man today is slave enough to echo John O’Connell’s dictum. “Nuff ced”, as the Yankees put it.
I think you asked me why we are for a Republic. Well, how otherwise could we get rid of a foreign King? And a “class” Upper House”? And the tradition of Heaven-born Ministers? We are republicans because we are a nation of aristocrats, and so all equal; a true democracy.
My pen is running dry.
Yours very sincerely,
G.N. Count Plunkett
To be continued in our next’.

The file also includes some letters from George Noble Plunkett’s wife (Josephine Plunkett née Cranny), and daughter Mary Plunkett. The letter from Mary Plunkett refers to the death of Count Plunkett. It reads ‘The poor old man was in bed for more than three years. We expected that he would go very quickly. Instead of that he was dying for twelve days. The poor old body was worn out, but that strong valiant spirit held on. He suffered a lot, so much that we prayed that God would take him. The end was very quiet’. (5 May 1948). A letter to Fr. Senan Moynihan from Fr. Henry Rope in this file refers to his donation of Plunkett's correspondence ‘for your Archives, which may also one day be of historical interest’. He also notes that he has given some of his correspondence with Count Plunkett to Saint Isidore’s College in Rome. (20 Dec. 1951)