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Photocopies of Temperance Reports held in the State Paper Office (now the National Archives of Ireland). The reports are part of the Official Papers Collection (OP/1840/131/10). Police and magistrates in the southern counties of Ireland submitted detailed reports on the progress of the temperance crusade in their districts at the beginning of 1840 in reply to a circular (12 March 1840) from the Chief Inspector of the Constabulary in Dublin. These replies (the Temperance Reports) have survived in the original handwriting of the police officers and magistrates. The counties covered in the reports include Waterford, Limerick, Kerry, Tipperary, Wexford, Cork, Clare and Galway. The file also includes a copy of the ‘Rules of Saint Mary’s Temperance and Mortality Society established July 28th, 1839, in Limerick’. The photocopies were acquired by Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap. in March 1982. The file also includes notes (compiled by Fr. Nessan) taken from evidence found in the Temperance Reports particularly in respect of the locations visited by Fr. Mathew and the numbers pledged.

• Flier from the Father Mathew Centenary Committee seeking subscriptions for a fund for the completion of Holy Trinity (Father Mathew) Memorial Church, Cork. The flier includes a list of subscribers and the amounts given to the fund. March 1889. Printed, 1 p.
• Copy programme for a ‘Grand Vocal and Instrumental Concert in aid of the Father Mathew Centenary Celebration’ performed by the Cork Amateur Orchestral Society in the Opera House, Cork, on 9 Oct. 1889. The programme includes a recital of the Centenary Ode by Fr. Michael O’Flynn, CC, Saint Peter and Saint Paul’s Church, Cork. Copy print, 1 p.
• Copy obedience to Br. Masseo Hyland OSFC (d. 18 May 1908) allowing him to travel to the United States with Fr. Mathew O’Connor OSFC to receive subscriptions for the celebrations of the centenary of the Father Theobald Mathew and the completing of the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Cork …’. The obedience is signed by Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Provincial Minister, and is dated at Rochestown, 18 Oct. 1889. With a copy of a similar obedience (in Latin) to Fr. Mathew O’Connor OSFC. Manuscript, 3 pp.
• Notes re the Fr. Mathew ephemera and relics used in the Centenary Exhibition in 1890. The exhibited items included:
A banner painted by a sister from the South Presentation Convent.
A lock of Father Mathew’s hair which was loaned by Frank Driscoll, Garrick Street, Covent Garden, London. It is affirmed that ‘it was given to a Mr Regan, a devoted follower of Fr. Mathew, a few months before he died’.
A pair of heavy silver spectacles.
Temperance medals and cards including ‘the first medal sold in Cork by Fr. Mathew – sold to Wm. Kelly, and sent in by his daughter, Mrs Daly of Evergreen Street’.
A bible lent by Mrs Donegan, Monkstown. It had been given to Fr. Mathew by Mrs Donegan’s Aunt.
The file also includes notes by Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap. on the wider centenary celebrations of Fr. Mathew’s birth in 1890. Many of the extracts appear to have been taken from the 'Cork Examiner'. Manuscript and typescript, 9 pp.
• Copybook containing extracts from 'The Standard' (14 Oct. 1889) and the 'Freeman’s Journal' (25 Oct. 1889) reporting on a meeting of a committee organising the commemorations of the centenary of the birth of Fr. Mathew. The article in 'The Standard' reads ‘As a rule the inhabitants of the sister island find it anything but easy to discover a common ground on which they may meet each other without fear of dispute. The names of famous Irishmen are usually rather emblems of discord than national rallying cries. According as the great men in Irish history were Protestant or Catholic loyal or disloyal men of the North, or men of the South so did they receive the sympathy or dislike of the various sections of the population. Hardly one of them is capable of uniting even for a moment the sentiment of the whole country … . The zealous and single-hearted priest whom the Irish race with its love of picturesque phraseology knows as the “Apostle of Temperance” is one of the very few persons whom the whole country agrees to honour. That Father Mathew was a brave and good man, and that he did his best to succour and to raise the peasantry is a fact which is never disputed in Ireland’. Extensive reference is also made to the plan to erect a statue on O’Connell Street commemorating the temperance campaigner. Manuscript, 23 pp.
• 'The Father Mathew Centenary / by John Francis Maguire / 1890' (Cork: Irish Temperance League, 1890). Printed, 8 pp.
• An article from 'The Shamrock' on the unveiling of the statue of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC on O’Connell Street, Dublin. It reads ‘Father Mathew needs no statue to perpetuate his memory … but it is only proper that in the Capital of his Nation a grateful people should testify by some public memorial their recognition of his services, and should set his image in their streets as a witness of their gratitude. … Father Mathew would never have been suspected of being a clergyman from his dress. He wore no clerical coat or hat. He dressed like a gentleman of the time in a frock coat, hessian boots and a tall hat. Yet it was as a Capuchin Friar he did his marvellous work, and it is quite appropriate that in the statue which has been just unveiled in Dublin he should appear in the habit of that order. The statue is a fine work of art. It is by Irish hand, and the sculptor, to whom we offer our congratulations, is Miss Mary Redmond’. The article includes a sketch of the statue and of Thomastown Castle, Fr. Mathew’s birthplace. Feb. 1893. Printed, 4 pp.

Correspondence with the Performing Right Society Ltd., Chatham House, 13 George Street, Hanover Square, London. The correspondence relates to the granting of licences to perform and make use of music controlled by the members of the aforementioned Society at entertainments held in Father Mathew Hall. The correspondents include the Presidents of Father Mathew Hall, Fr. Columbus Murphy OFM Cap., Fr. Charles Brophy OFM Cap., Fr. Michael O’Shea OFM Cap. and Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap. Responding to the claims of infringement of copyright, Fr. Columbus referred to the amateur status of the performers in the musicals and the philanthropic nature of the Association which ran the Hall (21 Nov. 1927). The file includes printed literature from the Society and newspaper clippings reporting a judgement made in a court case taken by the Society against Bray Urban District Council for infringement of copyright ('Irish Independent', 16 Nov. 1927). The dispute was eventually settled when the Father Mathew Hall Committee agreed to pay £3 3s for performing rights’ fees at the Hall. A letter of 12 Oct. 1943 referred to the intention of the Hall Committee to apply to the Metropolitan District Court for a licence to stage dances in St. Brigid’s Hall

A volume (Browne’s Whole Page Diary for 1948) containing drafts of outgoing letters written by Fr. Henry Anglin OFM Cap. The volume contains letters to: John English Ltd., printers, Sr. Mary Anastasia MMM, Fr. Michael Glynn, Joy Walda, A.J. O’Reilly, Arthur M. Campbell, Robert Ostermann, Daphne Pochin Mould, Alison King, ‘Simon Pederek’, J.R. Bainbridge, Doran Hurley, Thomas F. McNamara, Fr. Sylvester O’Brien OFM, Kenneth MacGowan, Edward Daly, Donal O’Cahill, Fr. Francis X. Dent, Sean Neeson, Most Rev. Patrick Collier, Bishop of Ossory, Most Rev. James Moynagh, Fr. Christopher Crowley OFM Cap., Rockwell Newman, Fr. Aquinas Carroll OFM Cap., Most Rev. David Mathew, Rev. David Mathew, Rev. David O’Driscoll, Fr. Brian Browne OFM Cap., Beatrice McCahill, Rev. Aubrey Gwynn SJ, Clare Thornton, Seamus MacManus, D.L. Kelleher, Michael J. Lennon, K.M. Murphy, Richard J. King, Diarmuid Breathnach, Jean Norton, Beda Herbert, James Rice, Fr. Colga O’Riordan OFM Cap., Fr. Carthage Ruth OFM Cap., Desmond Cryan, Basil Clancy, Rev. Anthony J. Cleary, Most Rev. Charles H. Helming, Fr. Aidan McGrath, John Nagel, Vincent J. Walker, Dr. Joseph Szoverffy, Fr. Terence Connolly SJ, Rev. Patrick Rogers, Rev. T.J. Walsh, and Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap.

A volume containing copies of outgoing letters written by Fr. Henry Anglin OFM Cap. The volume includes letters to: D.L. Kelleher, Liam Brophy, John English Ltd., printers, Alison King, Seamus Mac Manus, Dorothea Barclay, Doran Hurley, Fr. Aubery Gwynn SJ, Fr. Reginald Walker CSSp, Professor Daniel Corkery and Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap.
• A letter to Doran Hurley refers to Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap., former editor of the 'Annual': ‘You will be glad to hear that Father Senan keeps very well and enjoys a life free from worries or the many cares that were his while he was editor. His indomitable spirit persists in flashing good humour’ (1 Aug. 1956).
• A letter to Alison King notes the change of printers from John English to Dollard Printing House. Fr. Henry wrote ‘we are changing our printer this year and going to Dollard’s. I think it will make things much easier to have the work done in Dublin’ (29 Jan. 1957).

Letter from Padraig Ó Caoimh, General Secretary of the GAA, to Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap., expressing his happiness on hearing that the bodies of Fr. Albert and Fr. Dominic will be repatriated to Ireland. He adds: ‘I had the honour and pleasure of serving mass for Fr. Dominic while in Parkhurst. Up to the time of the truce he was only allowed to say it every Sunday and after that daily … We were life long friends … the night before he left Cork and Ireland – he came to see me in a house where I was on the run’. Ó Caoimh joined the Irish Volunteers in 1916; three years later he gave up school teaching to become an officer with the Cork Brigade of the IRA. In 1920 he was appointed manager of the Employment Bureau established by the First Dáil. Soon afterwards, he was captured by the British and sentenced to 15 years penal servitude. He was released in 1922. In 1929 he resigned from his position as manager of a tobacco company following his appointment as General Secretary of the GAA, a position he held until 1964.

Membership form for the Associate Members’ Guild of the Father Mathew Feis. Invitations are to be sent to Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap., President, Father Mathew Hall.