Letters, telegrams, memoranda and notes relating to Belgian refugees in Ireland. Irish Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan SJ was a member of the Distribution Committee ‘appointed by the Local Government Board to look after the welfare and distribution of the Belgian Refugees arriving in Dublin’. Most of the letters comprise offers to house refugees or concern schemes to aid them, both physically and spiritually. Includes:
– letter from Dr Bernard Coyne, Bishop of Elphin (1913-1926) to Lady Moloney seeking her assistance in the securement of a disused barracks in order to provide shelter for Belgian refugee families (21 Oct. 1914, 1p.);
– bills from drapers and household stores for items purchased for the refugees;
– letters relating to troubles between Protestants and the Catholic refugees in Portadown;
– letters to Fr Nolan from refugees and members of the Belgian Refugees Committee;
– lists of names and locations of refugees in Ireland and names and addresses of people who housed refugees.

On 17 October 1914, the Father Provincial of the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus, Thomas V. Nolan, received a letter from the Local Government Board to go down to the North Wall at 7.30am on the 18th and meet the 100 Belgian refugees ‘and one hundred each of the following days’. This was due to ‘a few of your Order, who speak Flemish’. Subsequently, the Irish Provincial became a member of the Distribution Committee which looked after the welfare and distribution of refugees arriving in Ireland. The Irish Jesuits received offers to house the refugees and organised schemes to aid them, both physically and spiritually.

Holograph letters by Fr Willie Doyle SJ from his time with the 8th Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers, 49th Brigade, 16th Division and the 8th Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusilier’s: at Whitely Camp, Surrey; Bordon Camp, Hampshire; various locations in France. In the main, the letters are addressed to his father, but also his sister Mai. The letters document his time as a military chaplain, firstly at camp in England while preparing for embarkation and secondly, at the front in France. Some of the letters have been transcribed by Professor Alfred O'Rahilly in his book - Father William Doyle SJ. (1922) http://www.archive.org/details/fatherwilliamdoy00orahuoft
With envelopes and four undated parts of letters.

Includes notebooks written by Fr Willie Doyle SJ at the front (31 March 1916 - August 1917) with the following titles: ‘Bully Beef’ (20 - 29 December 1916); ‘Pork and Beans’ (16 January - 5 February 1917); ‘Bits and scraps for an old man’s breakfast’ (July 1917)’; ‘The Battle of Ypres’ (9 July - August 1917). Includes opening entry - ‘My dear Father, When I posted my letter to you this morning it occurred to me that perhaps if I kept a kind of diary for the next couple of weeks it might interest you and others, even if I had nothing of very great interest to relate (31 March 1916).

Letters to Fr Henry Gill SJ from Mary Maura Ostyn, O.S.B., Prioress of Ypres, 11 Harwood Avenue, London, England asking Fr Gill to salvage the contents of the Benedictine abbey at Ypres. Contains details of all the convent’s treasures and where they have been hidden. Includes letter from Baron H. Kervyn de Letterrhov[e] concerning the destroyed treasures.

Letters to the Irish Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan SJ from Fr Sydes written just before and during his appointment as chaplain serving with the 2nd Australian Division, A.I.F, in France.

Letters to the Irish Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan SJ from Fr Henry Gill SJ during his time as a chaplain to the 2nd Royal Irish Rifles, 3rd Division, VII Brigade, B.E.F., France.

Letters to the Irish Fr Provincial Thomas V. Nolan SJ from Fr Joseph Wrafter SJ written while serving as chaplain in France and Belgium with the 47th Irish (16th) Division, the 8th Royal Munster Fusiliers and the 7th Leinster Regiment.

Medal of the Order of the Crown (Ordre de la Couronne), class Officier, conferred by the King of Belgium to Irish Fr Provincial Thomas V Nolan SJ. Includes official document concerning the decoration (6 May 1919) and letter from the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs (22 May 1919). The medal in case, with name of Fernanrd Heremans, Schaerbeek, is a five-armed white enamel and silver-gilt Maltese cross with silver-gilt graduated rays between the arms, on green enamel oval laurel wreath suspension; the face with a gilt-edged circular central blue enamel medallion bearing the gilt crown of Belgium; the reverse with a gilt-edged circular central blue enamel medallion bearing the cipher of King Leopold II, founder of the Order. Material hand in by Margaret Doyle, Archivist, Clongowes Wood College, 9 January 2017. Medal given by King of Belgium in recognition for the work of Irish Jesuits in helping Belgian refugees in Ireland during the First World War.

Obituary for Fr Frederick Peal SJ taken from 'Letters and Notices'. Fr Frederick Peal SJ (sometimes spelt, Peel). Born in India, 1864, he belonged to the Belgian Province and later worked and died in India, 1934...he was in the Irish Catalogue in 1917, 1st Connaught Rangers, Lahore Div. He wrote 3 books called 'War Jottings' published in 1916 by the Catholic Orphan Press Calcutta. Book 3 is Mesopotamia.

Photographs and postcards sent to Prof. Alfred O’Rahilly by the Imperial War Museum, London, England, for use in his book on Fr Willie Doyle SJ. Includes a note ‘Don’t mix these with the others. Return these to me. These are photos which I bought but decided not to use.’ All photographs are dated and described on back. Photos are mostly of the ruins of Ypres, Guillemont, Loos etc. Sizes: 21 1/2cm x 16 1/2cm; 14cm x 9cm and 27 1/2cm x 9cm.

File of photographs of First World War scenes (Military convoy, 30 July 1916 and the Menin Road), Rathfarnham Castle and Dalkey. Includes copies of images of St Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, County Offaly and Kemmel Hill and Zonnebeke, Belgium and small handwritten sketch maps of Ypres (11 February 1935).

Postcards and photographs of ‘views in France and Belgium’. Includes photographs of Kemmel Chateau and the Convent at Locre, Belgium and General Hickie and aide-de-camp Captain O’Connell at St Omer, 16 July 1917; carte postale of Sr Antonius, Locre, Belgium, with inscription by Fr Charles Doyle SJ on reverse, indicating the room of Fr Doyle and church of Noeux les Mines, France.