File 3 - Documents relating to the Father Mathew Centenary

18 pp; Manuscript, typescript and printed

• ‘Hymn to Fr. Mathew’ Air: “Tara Hall”. A song honouring the Apostle of Temperance published in the 'Analecta Ordinis Fratrum Minorum Capuccinorum', VI (1890), p. 220. Manuscript, 2 pp.
• Copy letter from Daniel Horgan, Lord Mayor of Cork, to Fr. Louis of Urbino OSFC re the work of the Father Mathew Centenary Committee. 16 Oct. 1890. Manuscript, 3 pp.
• Extracts from 'The Munster Journal' (1890) referring to planning for the celebration of the Father Mathew Centenary in Cork. Reference is also made to the contract for the completion of the façade of Holy Trinity (Father Mathew) Memorial Church ‘in accordance with the plans prepared by the architect Mr. D.J. Coakley’. It is noted that the contract was obtained by John Sisk, a Cork builder, for the sum of £5,769. The solemn ceremony for the blessing and laying of the corner-stone of the façade of the Church by the Most Rev. Thomas Alphonsus O’Callaghan OP, Bishop of Cork, took place in May 1890. It is also noted that ‘the spire of the Father Mathew Memorial Church, Cork, was completed on the 15th November [1890] and surmounted by a cross which had been previously blessed by Very Rev. Father Paul [Neary], the superior. The work has been suspended for the present for lack of funds. The sum of about £2,500 is still wanting to complete the Church’. The notes were compiled by Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. Manuscript, 4 pp.
• Original memorial to Thomas Sexton MP, Lord Mayor of Dublin, requesting that the ‘centenary of Father Theobald Mathew be celebrated in the Irish metropolis by the erection of a public statue of the Apostle of Temperance’. The memorial has circa forty signatories including John Redmond MP (1856-1918), Timothy Daniel O’Sullivan MP (1827-1914), Tim Healy (1855-1931), and Alfred Webb (1834-1908). [c.1889]. Manuscript, 2 pp.
• Public letter from the committee for the Father Mathew Centennial Celebration seeking funds for the completion of Holy Trinity (Father Mathew) Memorial Church in Cork. It reads ‘As the most fitting memorial that we could raise, we have selected to complete the Church which he, himself, commenced, but was forced to abandon owing to the advent of the Great Famine. It will cost us close on £7,000. We have already received about £3,000 chiefly from the citizens of Cork and our exiled countrymen in the United States. We are still about £4,000 short of the required amount’. Printed. 2 pp.
• Extracts from contemporary newspapers reflecting on the centenary celebrations of the birth Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC in Oct. 1890. The file includes extracts from:
'Catholic Times', 17 Oct. 1890
'The Weekly Freeman', 18 Oct. 1890
'Daily Herald', 14 Oct. 1890
'Cork Constitution', 18 Oct. 1890.
Typescript, 5 pp.