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Letter from Henry O’Hanrahan, prisoner no. q. 150, Lewes Prison, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. and Fr. Augustine Hayden OFM Cap., thanking the Capuchin fathers for their services during the Rising. He also refers to increasing clerical support for the republican cause. O’Hanrahan fought at Jacob’s Biscuit factory during the Rising. The letter reads:
‘Just a short note from an Irish felon to thank you both very much indeed for your many enquiries, for your words, and also for your many kindnesses to my dear mother and sisters. It will indeed be a while till we here, our friends, or Ireland forget what we owe to “Church St[reet]” – of course it did not and does not surprise some of us, even though we had not met some you till a very memorable Sunday. That indeed was a Sunday which we will all remember till we “surrender” to the God of Nations and I wonder what has He in store for our little country. Would we had some of your over here. … on that particular Sunday – the difference – but then in all her struggles religious and otherwise – Ireland’s friends were the [Religious] Orders. Thank God, from all we hear the young men of Maynooth etc. are “making good” and God knows its time.
Now I know you are pretty conversant with our life etc. here and perhaps before you read this you will have seen or heard of [Gerard] Crofts who is next for invaliding and as I know you are both such friends and also that you are aware space (even in paper) with us is limited, you will excuse my coupling you in this short note’.

Letter from Sr Bernard Heuston OP (1889-1960), Dominican Convent, Galway (a sister of Seán Heuston), to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. thanking him for his remembrance of her brother as the first anniversary of his execution approaches. The letter reads:

‘Dear Fr. Albert
Thank you for your long & interesting letter & above all for your promise of the Mass for poor Jack on Tuesday. I knew that you would not forget him. I can scarcely believe that that awful time is only a year ago & yet in another sense it seems decades away! There seems to be a great many anniversary masses, indeed they seem to have been kept up during the year & I am sure the dear dead ones will obtain many graces for the land they gave their lives for. The number of conversions certainly proves the excellent religious foundation of their patriotism.
I think it does my mother good to have a little chat about Jack sometimes – you sympathise with the cause for which he dies.
I am hoping that when the sad memories of the anniversary have faded somewhat, she will brighten up again – the wound of such a loss will never completely heal.
My mother sent me a list of anniversary Masses – certainly they have got more prayer than most people can dare to expect. The spirit still lives on.
A letter from the Archbishop of Adelaide [the Dublin-born Dominican friar, Robert Spence, 1860-1934] came here yesterday. It was written in or about St. Patrick’s Day & he said that all the meetings held in honour of the Feast were unanimous in their condemnation of the treatment meted out to the Irish by the English government – feeling is strong there.
You must be very pleased by the evident thoroughness of the Countess’ [Markievicz’s] conversion. I shall pray to get prayers for her & for all the others in whom you are interested. Should you be in the west any time during the summer I am sure you will call. I shall be very pleased to see you.
With all kind regards & grateful thanks,
Very sincerely yours
Sr Bernard’

Invitation card to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. for a reception for released prisoners of war organised by the Irish National Aid and Volunteers’ Dependents Fund at the Mansion House, Dublin.

First anniversary card ‘for the repose of the souls of the following Irishmen who were executed by English Law’. Hand coloured, tricolour and green flag over crossed pikes. Interlacing ribbon reads: ‘Our Prayers Daily'.

Declaration of Muriel MacDonagh’s (wife of Thomas MacDonagh) reception into the Catholic Church. It reads: ‘I Fr. Aloysius OSFC declare that … I have this eighteenth day of April 1917 received into the Catholic Church Mrs. Muriel MacDonagh observing the prescribed rites and ceremonies’. The document is signed by Muriel Mary MacDonagh.

She expresses her regret on hearing of Fr. Aloysius’s recent illness. She wrote: ‘When I asked for you to go and see [her son] Don I had no notion that you were ill …’. She added ‘Please thank Fr. Albert from me and his promise to go and see Don, also for the copy of the Catholic Bulletin which I am delighted to have’. With photographic postcard print of ‘Donagh and Barbara MacDonagh children of Thomas MacDonagh, shot at Kilmainham, May 3rd 1916’.

Letter from George Noble Plunkett, 26 Upper Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin, to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap., asking him to attend ‘an Assembly to make Ireland’s claim for liberty before the Peace Conference’.

A photographic print of the wedding of Terence MacSwiney and Muriel Murphy in June 1917. In February 1917 MacSwiney was deported from Ireland and interned in Shrewsbury and Bromyard internment camps until his release in June 1917. It was during his exile in Bromyard that he married Muriel Murphy, a member of a wealthy brewing family in Cork. Fr. Augustine Hayden OFM Cap. an Irish Capuchin friar (2nd row, third from the right), was the celebrant at the wedding.

A view of the snow-covered garden attached to the Capuchin Friary in Kilkenny in December 1917.

A letter from Hugh A. McCartan, 4 Gifford Avenue, Sandymount, Dublin, to Fr. Henry Rope. MacCartan refers to the contemporary political situation in Ireland and to the Sinn Féin movement.