Dossier 1 - Provenance Information re Temperance Society Medals

• Notes re the provenance of temperance medals held in the Irish Capuchin Archives. The text refers to a large gold medal (CA FM RES/9/3/6) with the following engraving on the rim: ‘P.P. Daly took the Total Abstinence Pledge, May 20th 1840’. It is affirmed that this medal was ‘bought from a jeweller, who was going to melt it, for £7’. Reference is also made to a large silver medal presented to the Capuchins by a Miss Gibson from Ballyglass in County Mayo. A cross, also gifted to the Capuchins by Miss Gibson, belonged to the Youghal Roman Catholic Total Abstinence and Religious Society founded on 19 May 1839. Another silver medal has a large green ribbon attached to it and was presented by a Miss Tobin, 13 Killarney Street, Dublin. A smaller silver medal is engraved on the rim: ‘Presented to L.S. Gore Jones by the Rev. T. Mathew’. It was given to Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. by Fr. Laurence Kelly, Catholic Curate, St. Michan’s Church, Halston Street, Dublin. [c.1915]. Manuscript and typescript, 8 pp.
• Letters and notes re the provenance of temperance medals sent to the Capuchin friars. One of the letters to Fr. Maurice O’Dowd OFM Cap. refers to a medal gifted by a Mrs Lyons of 29 Clarence Street North. The letter states that ‘it belonged to her father-in-law Maurice Lyons who is dead over 40 years’. The letter is dated 10 Apr. 1938. Another note states that a medal given to Fr. Canice Bourke OFM Cap. by a Dr O’Mahony on 30 Aug. 1930 and was found ‘in a secret drawer belonging to his uncle the late Dr Shanahan’. Manuscript, 7 pp.
• Newspaper cutting of an article by Michael Kenny titled ‘Discovering the National Museum’, 'Irish Times', 5 April 1981. The article refers to the National Museum’s collection of temperance medals and dies from which the medals were struck. The article reads ‘Given the great numbers enrolled it is hardly surprising that a huge number of medals were struck of widely varying design and legend. A few were struck in gold and silver, but the vast majority in bronze and white metal, particularly the latter. Many contemporary medallists were involved in their production … particularly Isaac Parkes of Dublin …’. With letters to the editor responding to Michael Kenny’s article. 5 Apr. 1981-19 Apr. 1981. Clipping, 5 pp.