Copy cable from Diarmuid Lynch (1878-1950), New York, to Terence MacSwiney, City Hall, Cork, confirming that ‘Fogarty got no commission whatever from and was not authorised to act or speak for myself or friends. Advise Dublin’. Annotation reads: ‘Received 16 July 1920’. Copy in the hand of Liam de Róiste; With [copy] letter from Liam de Róiste (1882-1959) to Diarmuid Lynch acknowledging Lynch’s cable referring to the aforementioned Fogarty. In Irish.
Copy speech made by Terence MacSwiney on the occasion of his election as Lord Mayor of Cork after the assassination of Tomás Mac Curtain. The final page is signed ‘Toirdhealbhach Mac Suibhne’. MacSwiney noted that the ‘circumstances of the vacancy in the office of Lord Mayor inevitably governed the filling of it; and I come here more as a soldier stepping into the breach than an administrator to fill the post in the municipality’. In Irish and English. With Lord Mayor’s Prayer. A message to Republican prisoners on hunger-strike. The text begins: ‘To my Comrades in Cork. On your 57th day I greet you! …’.
Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. served as chaplain to Terence MacSwiney and the Cork Brigade of the IRA. He ministered to the Lord Mayor of Cork during his imprisonment in Brixton Prison. The sub-series includes some correspondence associated with MacSwiney’s political career which may have been acquired by Fr. Dominic during the performance of his duties. Of particular interest is a collection of correspondence from notable figures in the republican administration including Richard Mulcahy, Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith and Seán T. O’Kelly.
Circular letter from the Most Rev. Denis Kelly, Bishop of Ross, Bishop’s House, Skibbereen, regarding the number of Irish chaplains in the British Army and Navy. Distinctions are made between incardinated secular clergy and regulars ‘who have gone from the Irish Houses of their respective Provinces’. It is noted that two members of the Capuchin Order in Ireland are serving as chaplains. These were Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. and Fr. Ignatius Collins OFM Cap.
Photocopies of letters from Capt. Rev. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap., 21 Stationary Hospital, Salonika Forces, M[acedonian] E[xpeditionary] F[orce], and the Capuchin Friary, Fr. Mathew Quay, Cork, to his sister, [Sister Constantine O’Connor?], explaining his reasons for becoming an army chaplain. He wrote: ‘Well someone had to do the work and when those who had done all the recruiting were too cowardly to go there was nothing left except to have us who were anti-recruiters go and help the souls of the soldiers the others had sent out’. He later referred to conditions for the troops he is ministering to: ‘We have had more than half the troops down with malaria, dysentery, sandfly fever etc. and it is fortunate that there was no fighting here’. [c. 1915]. In reference to the political situation he later wrote: ‘There is no use in saying anything about the political situation. England seems set upon forcing conscription on us. And the Irish Nation is equally or rather more determined to oppose it. God protect us!’.
Letter from Cardinal Michael Logue, Archbishop of Armagh, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, affirming that he has sent the name of Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. to Cardinal Bourne for appointment as chaplain.
Letter from Cardinal Francis Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, seeking priests to act as chaplains in the British armed forces for the duration of the war.
