Material relating to Fr Francis O'Farrell SJ. Includes notes, letters and postcards (mainly in German).

Letters and report to the Irish Fr Provincial from Fr Leonard Sheil SJ concerning missions in Spain, comparisons with missions in Britain and Ireland and the possibility of Fr Sheil’s working in South America. Includes:
– letter from Fr Sheil to the Irish Fr Provincial seeking permission to go to Spain to study Spanish missions in order to adapt certain practices for use in Britain (7 September. 1961, 4pp);
– copy of a ‘Report on Missions in Spain’ following a visit by Frs Shiggins and Sheil who attended five missions around the country (n.d., 4pp);
– letter from Fr Sheil to the Irish Fr Provincial in which he discusses certain Spanish customs which could be used on Missions in Britain. Remarks that he will send the Provincial a report ‘on the meetings I now hold with Protestant clergymen after missions in Ireland’ and that he has sent in ‘full reports on our missions in Britain’ ‘almost every year for ten years’. Also mentions a new member of the mission staff, Fr Kevin Laheen SJ – ‘You will be glad to know that Fr Laheen on this his first mission did very well. He preaches well and his musical voice was a help to O'Beirne and I. I need not tell you that O'Beirne preaches very well, and is a wonderful companion on a mission. He sleeps badly’ (Fr Gerry O'Beirne) (23 March 1963, 3pp) and
– letters seeking permission to go to Spain (and Italy) as a supply priest (25 May 19?? – 30 November 1965, 4 items).

Letters (some incomplete) to Fr Aubrey Gwynn SJ from Dr Christopher Hohler (Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, and Oslo) on a wide range of topics including:

• the Corpus (Christi) Missal; Drummond Missal, Winchester Troper and the Trim Breviary;
• Arrouasian books in England and abroad;
• Hadcock and Gwynn’s Medieval Religious Houses: Ireland;
• Victorine liturgical books;
• the Roslyn Missal;
• the ‘Pet[rine]’ and ‘Ephe[sine]’ liturgies;
• the Sarum Missal;
• Gilbert of Limerick’s ‘Prologue’ and the Synod of Cashel;
• Roman and ‘Gallican’ rites;
• his views on Sts. Patrick and Palladius;

Includes offprint of chapter by Dr Hohler entitled ‘Some Service Books of the Later Saxon Church’ from David Parsons (ed.) Tenth Century Studies (1975), pp.60 – 83 (24pp) with notes, pp.217 – 227 (11pp). Also includes notes by Fr Aubrey Gwynn SJ on the Hohler correspondence (3pp & 3 envelopes).

Article entitled ‘A breviary from St Mary’s Abbey, Trim’, Rioght na Midhe, 290-298, by Fr Aubrey Gwynn.

Correspondence concerning Fr Leonard Sheil's return to Farm Street Church, London on mission work. Includes:
– letter from Provincial Fr Brendan Barry SJ to Fr John Brooks SJ, Superior of the English Provincialate in Mount Street, London, offering the services of Fr Sheil for mission work amongst Irish immigrants. ‘I should let you know that last December Father Sheil had an operation for cancer in the intestine. However, he is in very good form again and is most anxious to take on plenty of work. His doctor wrote to me in January to say that it is quite possible that he may continue to have many years of useful activity’ (17 Apr. 1966, 1p.) and
– letter to the Provincial from Fr Sheil describing the week he spent working among the inmates in Wormwood Scrubs Jail. ‘There are 1,500 prisoners, 700 of them under 20. Of these youths, 81 are Catholic, 19 of them born in Ireland; 12 had not made First Confession, but all the Irish-born knew their religion. I was supplying for the prison chaplain R.C., an excellent man who spent 16 years of his life at Westminster Cathedral. But they tell me he doesn’t visit the cells. I did, 81 of them. It’s pathetic. And I got locked in twice, because if the cell door slams, there is no possible way of getting out till some warder changes (sic.) to come along’ (13 Jul. 1966, 2pp). Encloses a report he wrote for 'Chaplain’s Weekly' on ‘Farm St(reet) Hotel work’ describing the work of the chaplains in London bars, restaurants, residential clubs and hotels (11 Jul. 1966, 2pp).

The English Jesuits from Campion to Martindale

Letters to Fr Aubrey Gwynn SJ from Edward Schofield (Department of Manuscripts, British Museum) on his publications about England and Basel, with references to ‘the difficult matter of the succession to Irish sees’ and a proposed trip by Fr Gwynn to London.

Correspondence between Vice-Provincial Brendan Lawler and the English Provincialate in Mount Street, London, relating to Fr Leonard Sheil’s recall to the Irish Province due to his final illness. Includes:

• letter from Irish Fr Provincial Brendan Barry SJ to Fr Thomas Dunphy SJ of Mount Street in which he states that Fr Sheil ‘…is beyond medical aid, since he has cancer of the liver. He is not confined to bed and – characteristically – he is all on for doing some work for God before he dies. Nevertheless it is obvious that his days at Farm Street have come to an end. I am therefore putting him in the Catalogus as withdrawn from Farm Street and stationed at the College of Industrial Relations, Sandford Road, Dublin 6. He went there from the nursing home last week and he is to stay there as long as his health allows. Please advise Father Corrigan that it seems best now to regard Father Sheil as no longer applied to the English Province or attached to Farm Street’ (19 Oct. 1967, 1p.) and
  – reply from Fr Dunphy to Fr Lawler – ‘I need hardly say how sorry we are about this, because he has been such a wonderful man. There is no doubt that he has done great work in the parish and has been deeply loved and respected by all who knew him. He was certainly a source of great edification to this community’ (22 Oct. 1967, 1p.).

File of mission material relating to Fr Gerald Lawlor SJ. Includes correspondence between Fr Lawlor and Fr Thomas Martin SJ, Mission Office, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin.

Letter from Fr Joseph Hurley SJ, Milltown Park, Dublin to Irish Fr Provincial Cecil McGarry SJ concerning the pastoral care of Gaeltacht London emigrants.

File of material relating to Fr John Chula SJ, (Zambian Province). Includes announcement of death; correspondence between Fr Chula and Frs Tom O'Brien and Vincent Murphy, Irish Jesuit Mission Office, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin.

Letter from Brother William Nash SJ, St Ignatius Presbytery, 27 High Road, London to [ ] concerning his thoughts on the late Brother John Conway SJ. Remarks ‘...the characteristics which stood out were his cheerfulness...and his natural spirit of religion.’. Concludes [he had a]...capacity to bear the unpleasant things of life with a laugh and a joke. He was to me a great Jesuit.’.

Letters to Fr Aubrey Gwynn SJ from Gilbert Laithwaite (an Old Clongownian, 1907-1911) to whom Fr Gwynn frequently sent his publications.

Letters to Fr Aubrey Gwynn SJ from Dr John Morrall (Senior Lecturer in Political Science, London School of Economics) concerning his candidature for the Leaky Chair of Medieval History at T.C.D. and Fr Gwynn’s agreement to act as a referee.

Letters to Fr Aubrey Gwynn SJ from Sarah Wimbush, Archive Research Assistant, National Portrait Gallery, London, seeking information on any known portraits of Stephen Lucius Gwynn (Fr Gwynn’s father), as part of her work in cataloguing Edwardian portraits, one of which is a portrait by Sir William Rotherstein of Stephen (1915). Includes list of known portraits of Stephen (1p.) and photocopy of the portrait (1p.).

Letter from Christopher Date, Assistant Museum Archivist, The British Museum to Fr Eddie O’Donnell SJ on letters between the museum and Fr Frank Browne SJ, c.1936 regarding Fr Browne’s work (items damaged from fire at Gonzaga College, 5 May 1996).

Letter from Donald I. Findlay, Deputy Secretary, The Council for the Care of Churches, 83 London Wall, London to Fr Eddie O'Donnell SJ on the photographs taken by Fr Frank Browne SJ while engaged by the Council during the Second World War (item damaged from fire at Gonzaga College, 5 May 1996).

Henry Piers's continental travels, 1595-1598
Cambridge University Press; For the Royal Historical Society, Cambridge, United Kingdom, New York, NY, USA, 2018