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Flier seeking funds (£800) to complete the building of the Father Mathew Hall, Church Street. The opening paragraph affirms that ‘this Total Abstinence Hall, for one of the poorest and most crowded districts of Dublin, will cost £3,000. It will seat 1,200 people, and the building will also contain a gymnasium, reading rooms, a room for bagatelle and other games, a library, a coffee bar and a caretaker’s apartment’.

Ticket for ‘A Grand Dramatic Performance’ given by the Dramatic Club at the Father Mathew Centenary Hall, Church Street. Fr. Columbus Maher OSFC (1835-1894) is noted as President of the Hall.

Photographic print of Father Mathew Hall fronting onto the corner of Church Street and Nicholas Avenue. Pasted onto an annotated card: ‘Thomas F. Geoghegan, 2 Essex Street’. The print shows the Hall before the addition of the St. Brigid’s Hall extension in 1901.

Annual reports and statements of accounts of Father Mathew Hall, Church Street. The booklets provide reports on annual general meetings, activities, speeches and events held in the Hall and provide annual accounts of receipts and expenditure. The 1901 report (pp 20-3) gives an account of a speech by Pádraig Pearse in the Hall on 2 March 1902 commending the giving of classes ‘for the study of our native language, and forms of self-culture amongst our members.’ He added ‘There is a certain bad old tradition that one cannot be a good Irishman unless he “takes a dhrop”. Now, I think you will all allow if there is one body in Ireland which is concerned more than another for the maintenance of genuine Irish traditions, that body is the Gaelic League … [and] in the ranks of no body in Ireland will you find proportionally so many total abstainers as in those of the Gaelic League’. Pearse suggested that there should be more cooperation between the Gaelic League and the temperance movement. In 1906, it was reported (p. 20) that ‘owing to several exceptional expenses, rendered necessary by the increase of membership and the extension of temperance work, we have not been able to reduce our indebtedness to the Bank’. The statement of accounts noted that £1,405 6s 5d was owed to the National Bank by December 1906. The front covers of the booklets have ink drawings of the Hall fronting onto Church Street.

The volume contains information in respect of ticket sales and cash derived from various lectures and concert performances at Father Mathew Hall, Church Street. The Hall was regularly frequented by those interested in promoting cultural revivalist activities such as storytelling and festivals of native song and dance. The volume records that Pádraig Pearse gave a lecture in the Hall entitled ‘Education in Ancient Ireland’ on 20 Nov. 1905. On 29 Jan. 1906, the Chevalier Sheeran gave a talk on subject of the ‘alleged atrocities in the Congo Free State’. Each entry is signed by a secretary or officer of the Hall Committee. The signatories include J.W. Whitmore and J. Scanlan.

'Fáilte / Organ of Aonach na Bealtaine / Grand Temperance Fete / Father Mathew Hall, Church Street, Dublin / 1907'.
Publisher: Baile Atha Cliath: Ó Bruain & Árthr
Bound in contemporary soft covers with printed title to front cover.

Newspaper cuttings book compiled and annotated by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. Printed stamp on inside front cover reads: ‘Franciscan Capuchin Library, Church Street, Dublin’. The pages have been numbered by Fr. Stanislaus. The cuttings book includes:
Report of temperance bazaar and fete at Father Mathew Hall. 'Freeman’s Journal', 29 May 1907.
Photographic print of performers in the pantomime Cinderella at the Father Mathew Hall, Cork. 'Cork Weekly Examiner', 7 Mar. 1914.
Report on the Grand Temperance Fete and Exhibition of Irish Industries held in Father Mathew Hall. 'Freeman’s Journal', 30 May 1907.

Newspaper cuttings book compiled and annotated by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. Printed stamp on inside front cover reads: ‘Franciscan Capuchin Library, Church Street, Dublin’. The volume includes:
A public meeting in Father Mathew Hall of the Dublin Vigilance Committee in furtherance of the movement for the suppression of evil literature ('Freeman’s Journal', 2 May 1910).
Letters to the 'Freeman’s Journal' re the influence of elements of the Gaelic League on the Father Mathew Feis in Dublin. Includes a letter from Eoin MacNeill (14 Mar. 1912).
Report of the annual retreat of Father Mathew Hall Total Abstinence League of the Cross (c.1914).
‘The Church in America’, an illustrated lecture in Father Mathew Hall by Fr. Leonard Brophy OSFC ('Evening Telegraph', 10 Jan. 1914).
Father Mathew Feis. Statement by Fr. Alphonsus at prize distribution ('Evening Telegraph', 3 July 1919).
Father Mathew Feis Concert ('Irish Independent', 30 Apr. 1919).
Photographic print of the Graignamanagh Temperance Band, County Kilkenny, winners of the first prize at the annual Father Mathew Feis in Dublin in 1913 and in 1914. (See digital image above).
The opening of the Father Mathew Feis in Dublin with a report of the speech given by Fr. Canice Bourke OFM Cap., Vice-President of the Feis (5 April 1920).
Results at the Father Mathew Feis in Dublin, 1920.

Souvenir programme for the opening of an extension to Father Mathew Hall, Church Street. The programme provides an itinerary and guide to the first Father Mathew Feis, the Irish Trade Mark Exhibition and the Father Mathew Museum. The literary adjudicators for the Feis were Eoin MacNeill, Brian O’Higgins, George O’Moonan and Sinéad Ní Fhlannagáin. The new extension included a stage, dressing rooms, storage rooms, a new gallery, a ‘lantern and cinematograph operating chamber’ and a refreshment room.

Programmes for the Father Mathew Feis, Church Street. The printed programmes include timetables and syllabuses of competitions, souvenir publications and official prize lists. The programmes list the dates and times of the competitions and the names of the various judges and adjudicators. The adjudicators at the 1913 Feis included Sinéad Ní Fhlannagáin (1878-1975) and Seán S. Ó Ceallaigh (otherwise known as ‘Sceilg’, 1872-1957). Eoin MacNeill (1867-1945) was a literary judge at the 1910 Feis. The programmes for 1909 and 1911 are copy prints from 'The Father Mathew Record'. Programmes for the following years are not extant in the file: 1912; 1932-39.