Showing 41 results

Notes by Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap. on the life of Fr. Mathew and events connected with the temperance campaign. The file also includes some material relating to the general history of the Capuchins in Ireland. Includes:
• Note re the foundation of the Total Abstinence Association on Halston Street by Fr. Columbus Maher OSFC in c.1880. The note also refers to the foundation of The Father Mathew Record (1908), the Father Mathew Feis (1909), the opening of Father Mathew Park, Fairview, Dublin, by Fr. Aloysius Travers OSFC on 10 April 1910, and the establishment of the Young Irish Crusaders in 1909.
• Letter from the Public Record Office of Ireland to Fr. Nessan regarding a document (1840) in the Chief Secretary Office’s papers referring to an application from the Irish Temperance Union for the use of Smithfield Penitentiary. The letter reads ‘The application is based on the fact that the number of prisoners detained in the Richmond Bridewell was reduced from 313 in September 1839 to 191 in November 1840 “between these two periods the Temperance Reformation had greatly extended itself throughout the city”’. The letter is dated 15 Feb. 1955.
• Photostat copy from Fr. Thomas C. Butler OSA, The Augustinians in Cork, 1280-1985 (1986). The extracts refer to the presence of the Capuchin friars in Cork from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries.
• Photostat copy from Desmond Bowen, 'Paul Cardinal Cullen and the shaping of modern Irish Catholicism' (Dublin, 1983). The extracts refer to the relationship between Cardinal Cullen and the temperance campaigner.
• Notes by Fr. Nessan re places visited by Fr. Mathew in support of his temperance campaign in 1842.
• Letter from Michael O’Connell to Fr. Nessan re the preaching of Fr. Mathew at the dedication of Blackrock parish church in Dublin in Sept. 1845. The letter is dated 25 Jan. 1992.
• Note titled ‘The façade and spire of Holy Trinity Church, Cork’. The note provides a general history of the completion of work on the church for the centenary of Fr. Mathew’s birth and also refers to the blessing of the new bell in the church on 26 Apr. 1896. The note reads ‘Having “baptized” the Bell, the Bishop [of Cork] rounded it, being followed by the sponsors Mr Humphrey Donovan (the donor) and Miss H. Donovan, his sister’.
• Note by Fr. Nessan titled ‘O’Connell and Repeal, 1840-47’.
• Cutting from 'The Standard', Dec. 1949, surveying various Catholic churches in Dublin. The article includes photographic prints of St. Michan’s Church, Halston Street. The article also refers to nearby Newgate Prison on Green Street. It reads ‘In 1863 the prison was substantially demolished and converted into fruit market which gave way, in 1893, to St. Michan’s Park, where the statue of Erin stands, with the plaques of Lord Edward Fitzgerald and the Sheares brothers on the pedestal’. The article also refers to the Capuchin chapel on Church Street. It reads ‘In 1720, they [the Capuchins] moved to Church Street, where their chapel in 1749 “had an Altar-piece showing the Crucifixion; though formerly it was a painting of Our Saviour taken down from the Cross, which piece is much esteemed by connoisseurs”. The Capuchin Church, in Church Street, of 1720, was taken down in 1868, and the present church was erected on its site and completed in 1881’.

List of guardians of the Capuchin Friary, Kilkenny, from 1842-1883 compiled by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. The list includes their dates of office. The file also includes notes by Fr. Angelus re Fr. Edward Tommins OSFC (d. 29 July 1889), Fr. Columbus Maher OSFC (1835-1894) and Fr. Cherubini Mazzini OSFC (1831-1906), guardians from c.1855-68.

Costs of Thomas J. Furlong, 11 Eustace Street, solicitor, to Fr. Peter (Edward) Bowe OSFC and others for preparing a deed of conveyance to vest Church property in nine members of the community as joint tenants and for a power of attorney from Fr. Anthony (John) Travers OSFC (resident in Tasmania) to Fr. Aloysius (William) Travers OSFC. Total cost: £33 5s 4d. 2 copies. With letters from Thomas J. Furlong to Fr. Angelus Healy OSFC and Fr. Paul Neary OSFC referring to a deed executed by Miss Maher on 19 Aug. 1897 conveying the property bequeathed to her following the death of her brother (Fr. Patrick Joseph Columbus Maher OSFC, died 10 Sept. 1894) to the Capuchin community on Church Street.

File relating to the commemoration of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC at the 1902 Cork International Exhibition. Proposed by Edward Fitzgerald, Lord Mayor of Cork, this exhibition and fair showcased many facets of the industrial revival in Ireland. The exhibition included a pavilion devoted to the life and work of Fr. Mathew. The installation of a Father Mathew Pavilion at the exhibition was primarily the result of work done by Fr. Thomas Dowling OSFC (1874-1951). The Exhibition Pavilion was designed by James F. McMullen, architect. The file includes:
• Letters relating to the loan of exhibits, temperance souvenirs, personal effects, paintings and mementos displayed in the Father Mathew Pavilion at the exhibition. Correspondents include Fr. Thomas Dowling OSFC, Fr. Paul Neary OSFC, Fr. Mathew’s collateral descendants, J.D. Power, James Nugent, Fr. J. Kane, Parish Priest of Culdaff, Derry, Joshua Baily and William O’Connell.
• Letter from Denis Downey, Dawson Street, Dublin, to Fr. Thomas Dowling OSFC regarding a painting of Fr. Mathew in his possession. Downey adds ‘the late Father Columbus [Maher OSFC] of Church Street with Miss Redmond, the artist, called here and sketched the features for the O’Connell Street Statue, and Father Columbus told me he would purchase the picture as soon as he would be free from debt over the building of the Hall in Church Street’. 24 Jan. 1902.
• Letter from Thomas S. Bowdern, Supreme Council of the Knights of Father Mathew, St. Louis, Missouri, to Fr. Thomas Dowling OSFC thanking him for his kindness in sending ‘souvenirs of the Great Apostle of Temperance’. Bowdern wrote ‘I assure you we appreciate very highly these souvenirs and will hand them down to our successors in the Knights of Father Mathew that in the flight of years they will become even more and more highly prized if such is possible’. Reference is also made to the Knights’ intention to build a statue of Fr. Mathew for the World Fair. ‘As it is the desire to make our statue after the one in Cork I have been asked to write to you to have you inquire whether there is a replica or moulds in existence of the Cork monument’. 24 Feb. 1903.
• Copybook containing notes on the provenance of many of the items displayed in the Pavilion including temperance certificates and medals, Fr. Mathew’s stole, portrait paintings, Fr. Mathew’s piano and a model of the Capuchin chapel on Blackamoor Lane, Cork.
• Caption panels for objects displayed in the exhibition. Includes descriptions and provenance details for commemorative plates, teapots and other artefacts associated with Fr. Mathew. One of the captions reads: ‘The marble chimney-place at present in Refectory was also left in Father Mathew’s house when he left it, and was presented to Community by Mrs Ryan’.
• Visitors’ Book to the Father Mathew Pavilion at the Cork International Exhibition in 1902. The visitors included Cardinal Michael Logue, Archbishop of Armagh. A note on the final page by Fr. Thomas Dowling OSFC reads ‘No. of visitors over 4,500’.
• Copy prints showing Fr. Thomas Dowling OSFC outside the Father Mathew Pavilion at the exhibition in 1902. The other print shows the interior of the Pavilion with various artefacts associated with Fr. Mathew on display.

The file includes various fliers, pastoral letters, mission cards and ephemera relating primarily to various temperance associations, and missions and retreats including the Father Mathew Temperance Sodality and the Young Irish Crusaders attached to the Capuchin Friary, Church Street, Dublin. The file includes:
• Pastoral letters on temperance composed by various Irish Bishops in 1900 including Patrick Joseph O’Donnell, Bishop of Raphoe, Robert Browne, Bishop of Cloyne, Richard Alphonsus Sheehan, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, and John Keys O’Doherty, Bishop of Derry.
• Souvenir of the National Temperance Crusade preached by the Franciscan Capuchin Fathers (c.1906).
• Midwinter greeting to the Priests’ Total Abstinence League of America (31 Jan. 1908).
• Flier for Grand Abstinence Demonstration, Armagh (27 June 1909).
• Flier for St. Michael’s Temperance Society, Lower Cecil Street, Limerick (1909).
• Circular from the Most Rev. Thomas O’Dea (1858-1923), Bishop of Galway, to the clergy of the diocese re the Capuchin Temperance Mission. 8 Aug. 1909.
• Indulgences granted to temperance sodalities established by the Franciscan Capuchin Fathers.
• Souvenir of retreat for the Children of Mary attached to the Convent of St. Camillus, St. Patrick’s Kilkenny (8 Dec. 1915).
• The Catholic Bishops on Intemperance.
• Souvenir of the Temperance Crusade held at Kilmacow, County Kilkenny / 6th to 13th July 1913.
• Father Mathew Temperance Association in honour of the Sacred Thirst / Object, Means and Constitution of the Association (Nov. 1913).
• Souvenir of the General Mission for Men and Women held in St. Mary of the Angels, Church Street, Dublin (25 Jan. 1914).
• Enrolment card for the National Catholic Total Abstinence Congress, Dublin (June 1914). The card also gives details of the proceedings of the congress which closed with an address by Fr. Aloysius Travers OSFC, Provincial Minister.
• Ceremonial and instructions for Capuchin Fathers conducting Missions and Retreats. (24 Jan. 1912).
• Flier for Devotions at St. Augustine’s Church Galway on the Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel (26 April 1915).
• Annual retreat of the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis (6 Oct. 1918).
• A week-long mission at the Church of Our Immaculate Lady of Refuge, Rathmines, Dublin.
• Temperance Rallying Songs published The Father Mathew Record Office, Church Street, Dublin. Words by Brian O’Higgins and music by Arthur Darley.
• Rules of St. Patrick Total Abstinence Society, Dundalk (May 1909).
• The Amethyst / a temperance lecture by Fr. Matthew Russell SJ. A manuscript note on the final page reads: ‘Recited in the Father Mathew OSFC Centenary Memorial Hall, Church Street, May 21st, 1894 by the Rev. Author before it was printed. Fr. Columbus Maher’.
• The Anti-Saloon League and its work / what position should our Catholic Total Abstinence Societies assume towards it? Speech given by John. T. Shea. Published by the CTU of America, Massachusetts. Aug. 1908.
• Flier for a Lenten mission given by Capuchin Fathers from Cork at the Corpus Christi Votive Basilica, (Corpus Christi Priory), Manchester. Feb. 1921.
• The Father Mathew Man, no. 19 (Nov. 1924). Published in Chicago.
• A Solemn Novena in honour of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the Church of Saint Simon Stock / 182nd Street, Bronx, New York / Saturday, July 10th to Sunday, July 18th 1926. The sermons were given by Fr. Thomas Dowling OFM Cap.
• A remembrance of the mission preached by the Capuchin Fathers in the Pro-Cathedral, Dublin. 2-30 Mar. 1941.
• Young Irish Crusaders Prayer Book (St. Mary of the Angels, Church Street, Dublin, 1954).

Newspaper cuttings referring to Father Mathew Hall, Church Street. The cuttings are mainly from 'The Irish Catholic' and include references to the opening of 'Aonach na Bealtaine', temperance work, membership of the Hall, notices of annual meetings, details of excursions and lectures, and statements of accounts of the Hall Committee. One of the cuttings refers to the work of Fr. Albert Mitchell OSFC in founding the temperance sodality. It reads ‘in 1881 the association was installed in modest apartments in Halston Street … in 1891, the centenary year of Father Mathew, the new fine hall now standing on Church Street was opened during the presidency of Father Columbus Maher OSFC’. Includes two sketches of Fathers Mitchell and Maher. The report of the 23rd annual meeting of Father Mathew Hall contained a short excerpt of a speech by Pádraig Pearse in which he stated that the ‘Irish Ireland movement would be successful only so far and so long as it went hand in hand with temperance and its off-shoot of total abstinence’.