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.

Biographical information on Fr Peter Kenney SJ, and material related to the early years of the Irish Vice-Province.

Letters to the Irish Fr Provincial Laurence J. Kieran SJ from various Jesuits volunteering to become military chaplains following the outbreak of the Second World War. Includes letters from: Frs Michael J. Morrison SJ (See CHP2/29), Arthur Little SJ, Fr Edward J. Coyne SJ, Joseph Garland SJ, Thomas Shuley SJ, Richard Kennedy SJ (See CHP2/23), Leonard Sheil SJ, James McCann SJ and Michael Pelly SJ (See CHP2/33).

Letters to the Irish Fr Provincial from Fr Matthias Bodkin SJ written during his time as chaplain in the Royal Navy based at R.N. Base, Derry, Northern Ireland (refers to trips to the Arctic Circle and Western Australia) and serving on the battleship H.M.S. Anson in the East. Includes;

• Letter concerning his finances (February 1945, 10pp) and draft of Fr Provincial’s reply (25 February 1945, 2pp);
• Letter from Sergeant Major D.J. Fitzgerald (R.M. Detachment) of H.M.S. Anson describing Fr Bodkin’s activities in Malta (4 June 1945, 3pp);
• Letters describing his trip to Hong Kong, his visit with the Mission there (12 August – 25 October 1945, 12 items);
• News of the various Jesuits in Hong Kong and how they have fared during the occupation;
• Description of Tokyo (December 1945, 2 items); a ‘rough memory draft’ of his expenditure (1p.)
• Draft copy of letter from the Provincial to Fr Bodkin concerning his finances (5 January 1946, 2pp) (letter was never sent).

Letters to the Irish Fr Provincial from various Jesuits in response to Fr Provincial’s letter (16 April 1941, 1p.) seeking volunteers to serve as chaplains: ‘Mgr. Coghlan (an Irishman from the diocese of Meath) who is in charge of the military chaplains has called upon me and informed me that the need of chaplains is acute and urgent, in some areas Catholic soldiers have no priests to look after them’. Includes responses from: John Hayes SJ (See CHP2/18); John Burden SJ (See CHP2/13); Thomas O'Donnell SJ; Cyril Perrott SJ (See CHP2/35); Conal Murphy SJ (See CHP2/30); Thomas P. Kelly SJ; Brendan Lawler SJ; John McCarron SJ; Brian MacMahon SJ; Daniel Shields SJ (See CHP2/37); Maurice Dowling SJ (See CHP2/16); Frank O'Riordan SJ and Joseph Garland SJ.

A file relating to army chaplains. Includes letters and memoranda relating to the non-payment of their salaries to the Hong Kong mission. Includes extracts from letters by Fr Matthias Bodkin SJ, a naval chaplain concerning news of the Irish Jesuits in Hong Kong.

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.