Correspondence between Fr Leonard Sheil SJ and Irish Fr Provincial Laurence J. Kieran SJ on the content of Fr Sheil’s mission sermons. Includes:
– censors’ judgements on the manuscript of a sermon on ‘Sin’ by Fr Sheil (Jun 1936, 2 items); copy of summary of censors’ judgements (n.d., 2pp) and letter from Fr Sheil to the Irish Fr Provincial after receiving the censors’ reviews (24 June 1936, 2pp);
– letter from Fr Sheil in which he explains his delay in sending the Irish Fr Provincial the texts of his sermons, ‘My delay, and indeed serious negligence, has not been due, I think, to wilful disobedience, or to the opinion that they did not need censoring, but to this. I have eight fully written sermons in my drawer at present, but my dissatisfaction with them has caused me to cross out and amend lines and pages, so that none of them are yet in fit condition to send.…also…between missions my head is so tired that I am loathe to work.’ Also refers to the Sodality and the Legion of Mary (see J16/3) (12 Oct. 1936, 2pp);
– copy letter to Fr Sheil from the Irish Fr Provincial calling attention to Fr Sheil’s ‘want of prudence and discretion’ and warning him that if he continues ‘on present lines’ he may be ‘removed from the mission staff and given work in a College. With a view to rendering such a change unnecessary I forbid you in future to speak in the pulpit on questions of sex or, on general, matters relating to the VI commandment, without having first submitted your MS to the Socius for censorship. I wish also that you give up mentioning in public estimates or conjectures regarding the number of Irish emigrants who lose the faith or give up its practice’ (24 Jan. 1938, 2pp);
– note from Fr Sheil to the Irish Fr Provincial in which he lists the topics of his sermons that have been passed by the censor (12 Mar. 1940, 3pp);
– letter from Fr Tom Counihan SJ to ‘Fr. John’ in which he refers to Fr Sheil’s sermons, ‘You should have heard his sermons on sin, temptation, holyhour, family life & Holy Communion to feel utterly ashamed of the twaddle neither here nor there (sic.) No Scripture, no sound reasoning & abundance of crudity & naked realism…It is very unfortunate & I am not at all comfortable when I have to hand over an out-church to his tender mercies!’ (15 May 1940, 2pp) and
– copy letter from the Irish Fr Provincial to Fr Sheil in which he states, ‘I have been regretfully obliged to change you from the mission staff, and it is only fair that you should know the reason of this change. From information I have received from many different quarters it seems clear that you are greatly lacking in prudence in the things you say; and I cannot help thinking that if you were allowed to continue working as a missioner you would land both yourself and the Society into serious trouble…you allow your zeal to get the better of you with the result that you act contrary not only to the advice of your colleagues but also to that of your Superiors. I am afraid also that your knowledge of theology is very much wanting in accuracy…As to your work in Galway in the coming year, I must forbid you to preach anything in the Church without first having shown the MS to Fr Rector…’ (30 Jul. 1940, 2pp).

A file relating to the establishment of a foreign mission to China and the foundation of a school for higher studies in Hong Kong.

File entitled Missions in Britain 1950s containing eleven sections: Introductory letter from Fr Leonard Sheil SJ (20 February 1960, 5pp);

• report for Irish Fr Provincial (8 January 1958, 8pp);
• list of places and dates of Irish Missions in Britain 1949 - 1959 (19[59], 6pp);
• copies of commendatory letters (7 November 1953 - 24 November 1958, 3 items);
• Report for Irish Fr Provincial on Missions 1958 - January 1959 and cuttings from the [Irish Independent] on the Mission Campaign in Britain by Fr Leonard Sheil SJ (20 January 1959, 3 items);
• three ‘typical’ reports on three 1959 Missions for the Bishop of Ferns (1959, 4pp);
• ‘Account of an Ideal Mission for the Bishop of Ferns’ by Fr Sheil (n.d., 7pp);
• press articles by Fr Sheil describing the Missions (September - October 1958, 6 items);
• photographs of Birmingham and Westminster Cathedrals, Brompton Oratory, photographs of ‘children of the Irish’ (13 items) and
• map of England indicating the routes of Fr Sheil’s motorcycle travel (1 item).
  Also includes booklets and advertising leaflets for the Missions (7 items) and memorandum for Irish Fr Provincial by Fr Sheil containing suggestions for better organisation of the Missions (1959, 2pp).

Handbills advertising Missions in St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin.

Leaflet for a Jesuit Mission in St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin.

Letters to the Irish Fr Provincial concerning the celebrations for the fourth centenary of the foundation of the Society. Includes:

• letter and notes by Fr Aubrey Gwynn SJ (See also ADMN/3/18; 29; 37) concerning a discovery he made in the course of reviewing a German History of the Jesuit Missions under Fr Roothaan, written for the centenary – ‘I found that the four years spent by Fr Robert St Leger at Calcutta (1834-38) mark a turning-point in the whole missionary policy of the new Society. He and Fr Roothaan differed on a fundamental point, and he was recalled after four years. But Fr Roothaan was later compelled by wider experience to adopt the policy which he had opposed in Fr St Leger’s case – i.e., the policy of permitting our Fathers on the missions to accept promotion to episcopal dignity.’ (26 February 1940, 2 items);
• copies of circular letters sent to Jesuit schools and to scholastics by Irish Fr Provincial informing them of the date and form of the celebrations for the centenary in each community (11-12 May 1940, 3 items) and
• copies of newspaper cuttings, congratulatory letters to the Irish Fr Provincial from Galway Corporation and the Catholic Social Service Conference and copy replies ([22 August] – 29 September 1941, 9 items).

Typed notes on the history of the Jesuits in Galway by [Fr Paddy O'Kelly SJ]. Includes reference to books in Waterford and Carlow College which belonged to the Jesuit residences of Galway, New Ross and Dublin and book on the Jesuit residence at Athlone in Galway. Note by Rupert Coyle SJ (17 January 1964); list of priests educated at St Ignatius College, Galway; list of furnishings of St Ignatius Church.

Documents, mainly letters to Irish Fr Provincial reporting on works in progress by various Jesuits, to be published during the fourth centenary year of the foundation of the Society. Includes letters from Frs John Ryan, Timothy Mulcahy, Charles Scantlebury, Henry Gill, Joseph Canavan, Michael McGrath, Patrick Gannon, Stephen Brown, Arthur Little, John MacErlean, Edward Coyne (See also ADMN/3/37; 39; 42; 57), Timothy Corcoran, Aubrey Gwynn and Seán Ó Catháin. Also includes lists of titles and authors and a memorandum on historical publications of the Irish Province by Fr Aubrey Gwynn SJ (See also ADMN/3/18; 37; 40).