Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1990 (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
25 items; Photographic prints
Name of creator
Biographical history
Henry Shaw was born in Dungarvan in County Waterford on 18 May 1915. He joined the Capuchin Order in November 1933 and took Nessan as his religious name. He was ordained a priest on 29 June 1943. As a postgraduate student in University College Cork, he completed a thesis titled ‘The Life and Times of Fr. Theobald Mathew’ for an MA degree in 1939. He retained a life-long interest in the subject and accumulated many documentary sources, publications and notes pertaining to Fr. Mathew and his nineteenth-century campaign against intemperance. Most of his priestly ministry was spent in County Cork and he was a teacher for many years in the Seraphic College in Rochestown. For a brief period in the 1940s he worked as a missionary in Aden which was, as part of the Apostolic Vicariate of Arabia, under the care of the Capuchin friars. On his return to Ireland, Fr. Nessan resumed his priestly duties in Cork. As an avid supporter of Gaelic games, he held several senior administrative positions with various clubs associated with ‘Cumann Lúthchleas Gael’ in Cork. Fr. Nessan edited a collection of essays on the history of the Irish Capuchins in the twentieth century (titled ‘The Irish Capuchins / Record of a Century’) which was published in 1985. The last sixteen years of his life were spent as parish priest in Gurranabraher, a residential suburb on the north-western side of Cork city. He died on 13 July 1997 and was buried in the cemetery attached to Rochestown Capuchin Friary in County Cork.
Baptismal name: Henry Shaw
Religious name: Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 18 May 1915
Place of birth: Dungarvan, County Waterford
Name of father: Herbert Shaw (Baker)
Name of mother: Mary Anne Shaw (née Curran)
Date of parents’ marriage: 16 Oct. 1913
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 7 Nov. 1933
Date of first profession: 8 Nov. 1934
Date of solemn profession: 8 Nov. 1937
Date of ordination (as priest): 29 June 1943
Educational attainments: BA, 1937; MA, 2nd class hons., 1939; Higher Diploma in Education
Date of death: 13 July 1997
Place of death: Bons Secours Hospital, Cork
Place of burial: Cemetery, Rochestown Capuchin Friary, County Cork
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Scope and content
A collection of photographic prints assembled by Fr. Nessan Shaw OFM Cap. for an exhibition on the life and temperance campaign of Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC. The prints have been annotated on the reverse by Fr. Nessan. The file includes:
• Thomastown Castle, County Tipperary, birthplace of Fr. Mathew.
• Rathclogheen House, Golden, County Tipperary, where Fr. Mathew lived until he joined the Capuchins.
• St. Patrick’s Church, Kilfeacle, County Tipperary, Fr. Mathew’s parish church.
• The old Capuchin Chapel on Blackamoor Lane, Cork.
• Holy Trinity Church, after it was opened (without steeple) in 1850.
• House in Cove Street where Fr. Mathew Lived. Fr. Nessan notes that ‘it was No. 8 but it has since been demolished’.
• Portrait of Fr. Mathew. An annotation on the reverse reads: ‘This photograph … is an exact reproduction of the original painting at present in the Bon Secours Convent, Cork. On the back of the original painting is the following inscription “The original portrait of Fr. Mathew which I painted for himself / James Butler Brennan RHA”’.
• Father Mathew Statue on St. Patrick’s Street, Cork.
• Fr. Mathew Tower (with copy engraving). An annotation on the reverse reads: ‘Fr. Mathew Tower / built in Kilcoolishal, Dunkettle, by William O’Connor, a merchant tailor of Cork, to commemorate the hospitable reception which Fr. Mathew received in London in 1843. It was completed in 1846 and opened on November 10th’.
• Fr. Mathew’s grave in St. Joseph’s Cemetery, Cork.
• ‘A specimen of Fr. Mathew’s handwriting’.
• Plaque on a wall of a house on Cove Street commemorating Fr. Mathew’s residence in a house nearby.
• A gong presented by Fr. Mathew to the Ursuline Sisters of Thurles.
• A cup and saucer with images of Fr. Mathew and some temperance symbols emblazoned upon them. Fr. Nessan notes that these items are in the possession of the Foy family in Philadelphia, United States. He adds that the family ‘claim a relationship with Fr. Theobald Mathew through a great-great grandfather, Michael Moore, whose mother was Rose Anna Mathew’.
• The unveiling of the Fr. Mathew Statue on O’Connell Street, Dublin, on 8 Feb. 1893.
• Solemn High Mass at Thomastown Castle to commemorate the centenary of the inauguration of the temperance campaign by Fr. Mathew. 19 June 1938.