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Sheil, Leonard, 1897-1968, Jesuit priest and missionary England
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Correspondence between Vice-Provincial Brendan Lawler and the English Provincialate relating to Fr Leonard Sheil’s illness

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 I am therefore putting him in the Catalogus as withdrawn from Farm Street and stationed at the College of Industrial Relations, Sandford Road, Dublin 6.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.).

Correspondence concerning Fr Leonard Sheil's return to Farm Street Church, London on mission work

  • IE IJA J/16/13
  • File
  • 17 April - 9 December 1966
  • Part of Irish Jesuits

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).

Correspondence mainly between Irish Fr Provincial, Fr Leonard Sheil SJ and the English Provincial, relating to Fr Sheil’s Mission work in England

  • IE IJA J/16/9
  • File
  • 18 May 1949 - September 1967
  • Part of Irish Jesuits

Correspondence mainly between Irish Fr Provincial, Fr Leonard Sheil SJ and the English Provincial, relating to Fr Sheil’s Mission work in England. Includes:
– incomplete letter from Fr Sheil to the Provincial referring to a Mission he and Fr Robert L. Stevenson SJ are to give in Peterborough, ‘We will run one mission in a hostel, and another in the church at the same time. There are 180 Irish in the hostel; and there are believed to be about 400 in lodgings around the town. We may, or may not, be able to get at them.’ Also describes his recent travels on the Continent (third page of letter is missing) (12 Sep. 19--, 2pp);
– letter from Fr Sheil to the Provincial describing a ‘country mission in Northampton’ where he “was told to take a different village every day, say Mass in some Catholic house, visit every house – Catholic or no, and ‘hold a service’ on the village green in the evening” (2 September 19–, 7pp);
– covering letter and note (January 1953, 2pp) from Fr Sheil to the Provincial enclosing a memorandum entitled ‘Relations between Irish and English Jesuit Missioners’ (n.d., 3pp);
– covering letter from Fr Sheil (13 April 1953, 1p.) to the Provincial, enclosing a letter he received from the Archbishop of Cius and English Apostolic Delegate following Fr Sheil’s report to him of 1952 Mission work. The Archbishop writes ‘I have read with deepest interest the reports sent to me by the Reverend Father L. Sheil, S.J. and I have informed the Holy See of all the splendid work that has been accomplished. For this most necessary apostolate, certainly the Delegate of the Holy Father must send a cordial blessing in the name of His Holiness and he is confident that, with God’s help, more and more will be achieved for those who stand so much in need of the ministry of their own priests’ (9 April 1953, 1p.);
– copy letter from the Irish Fr Provincial Thomas Byrne to the English Fr Provincial Desmond Boyle SJ, regarding Fr Boyle’s ‘wishes concerning the activities of the Irish Mission staff in England’. States ‘I have…instructed Father Leonard Sheil to confine his activities in future to Camp Missions during the autumn months, and, once he has fulfilled his programme in London this autumn, to approach no parish priest about a parish Mission nor to accept any parish Mission without a specific request from Father Farrell.…I think he (Fr Sheil) has done good work for the Irish in England, some of which, such as the Confraternity in Birmingham, may be of permanent worth. But whatever good he has achieved is due in no small measure to the co-operation of the English Province and the support he received from the English parish clergy’ (22 Apr. 1953, 1p.);
– Fr Boyle’s reply thanking Fr Byrne for his co-operation and stating ‘I only hope that we of this Province have not seemed too difficult or dog-in-the-manger-ish. The position was getting rather confused and it seemed desirable to regularize it. Your mission Fathers have done wonderful work in England, and I am quite sure that Fr Sheil will be approached either directly or through Fr Farrell for further missions’ (29 Apr. 1953, 1p.);
– letter to Fr Sheil from Dr James Staunton, Bishop of Ferns in which he remarks ‘I was glad to know that you are going to St. Wilfrid’s York, and I hope your Fathers and yourself will be invited to give many missions in the secondary modern schools, and pioneer in this sphere’ (20 Aug. 1958, 2pp);
– letter to the Provincial from Fr Sheil describing the work of two Irish chaplains in London – Fr Cullen in Warwick Street and the chaplain in Bayswater (Sep. 1967, 2pp).
Also includes list drawn up by Fr Sheil of Jesuits who ‘should give a very good priests’ retreat’ (n.d., 2pp).

File entitled Missions in Britain 1950s

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).

Jesuit Chaplains to Irish emigrants in Britain

In the late 1940s, Fr Leonard Sheil SJ (1897-1968) travelled to Britain in an effort to serve Irish emigrants. Fr Sheil was a familiar sight on his motorbike visiting building sites, construction camps, mines, steel works, oil refineries and industrial hostels. Frs Matthew Meade (1912-1992) and Kevin Laheen (1919-2019) also provided missions.

General papers on Irish Jesuit missions;

  • Letters to the Provincial from Irish Jesuit missioners which give their opinions and impression of mission work in England (1960-1961);
  • Irish Episcopal Commission for Emigrants Easter conferences (1960-1977) which concerns the attendance of the Jesuit Provincial (1960-1972) and reports of proceedings, minutes and addresses (1962; 1977);
  • Working Party on the Irish Emigrant Missions in England and Wales (1973);
  • Mission reports and statistics (1966-1975) including Jesuit missions (1966-1970) and Irish Catholic missions in England and Wales (1968; 1974-1975);
  • Jesuit Chaplains in Westminster and Birmingham Archdioceses (1966-1969);
  • Irish Chaplaincy Scheme (1971-1979) including conference reports (1978-1979), details of chaplains and services (1971; 1976-1977) and Jesuit appointments (1974-1979);
  • Irish Centre Advisory Service, Liverpool (1976) and
  • Lillie Road Centre London (1978).

Irish Vice-Province of the Society of Jesus, 1830-

Letters and report to the Irish Fr Provincial from Fr Leonard Sheil SJ concerning missions in Spain

  • IE IJA J/16/10
  • File
  • 7 September [1961] - 30 November 1965
  • Part of Irish Jesuits

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).

Material from Sr Mary Regis, Mercy Convent, Doon, County Limerick, following Fr Leonard Sheil’s death

Letter to Irish Fr Provincial Cecil McGarry from Sr Mary Regis, Mercy Convent, Doon, County Limerick, following Fr Leonard Sheil's death. Encloses letters sent to her from Fr Sheil over a number of years and press-cuttings relating to him, in the hope they might be useful to the Society when writing Fr Sheil's biography. States ‘I thought I would like to do a little for him after all he did for me.…When he started his missions in England I used to make pictures & pieties to help him & send them to the different addresses. He sent me accounts of these missions…He never thought of himself, his aim was to use everything he could to bring souls to God… I have kept letters of his since 1939 & all the years of the war & until he wrote before Christmas to announce his illness’ (Aug. 1968, 4pp). Encloses seven letters from Fr Sheil, thanking her for sending badges and medals and discussing her health and his missions. Includes letter in which he remarks ‘…thanks so much for all your lovely pictures and things. They are immensely valued over here. Sometimes indeed religion is not valued, but I hope that these pictures etc. will make it impossible for them to forget the lovely things of Our Faith. One little boy brought five Protestant pals, mostly bigger than himself, to the mission at West Hartlepool. I have had many conversions of people years away from Mass and the Sacraments. Many others have rejected me. The [leak]age of the children when they leave school, & have no Catholic school, and no good parents, is frightful. I start missions again on January 8th at Coventry and near Northampton. They will be very tough, so help me with your prayers. I bless each house I enter, put them on their knees, if they don’t refuse, and instal (sic.) a holy picture’ (28 Dec. 19--, 2pp). Also includes photocopies of clippings on Fr Sheil from various English newspapers (n.d., 4 items).