Letters to Fr Aubrey Gwynn SJ from Fr Patrick J. Dunning, C.M. (President of St. Patrick’s College, Armagh). Includes:

• letter seeking information on St Malachy for an article Fr Dunning wishes to write in the school magazine and expressing surprise at the apparent lack of interest, on the part of the Irish, in St Malachy (18 January 1973, 2pp);
• letter seeking information for a lecture he is going to give to the London Medieval Society on ‘The attitude of the Irish Church to the Norman Invasion’ (13 November 1974, 3pp);
• letter on his brother Tom’s ‘valuable collection on Old and Middle English Literature’ which has been offered to U.C.D.. Includes a memorial card of Prof. Thomas P. Dunning, C.M. who died in 4 May 1973.

Also includes references to Fr Aubrey Gwynn SJ ‘presenting to U.C.D.’ his ‘most valuable card-index on Irish Medieval History, together with your most valuable correspondence with distinguished scholars. I am sure the History Department will be delighted with this generous presentation’ (23 July 1975, 2pp). (Inquiries to the Archives Department, U.C.D. in February 1998 revealed that no such presentation was made, either to the Library, History or Archive Departments in U.C.D.)

Letters from Prof. Ross Hoffman of Fordham University, New York, to Fr Aubrey Gwynn SJ and Denis Gwynn on personal matters, mainly his work, health and family and discussions on various American Presidents, the Pope and the Church. Includes:
– letter describing his work on arriving at the Manuscript Room in Sheffield Central Library to unpack and sort ‘three boxes (each about 2' by 2' by 8”) of unsorted (Edmund) Burke papers…they are largely the originals of the published letters, but there is also a rich collection of unpublished letters of Earl Fitzwilliam to Burke in the 1790’s and a few other fairly important letters that never have been printed…I am, it seems the first person to examine them since their delivery here…you can imagine how exciting is the experience of turning up, for example, original letters from George III to Rockingham…It is but one of scores, probably hundreds, of museum pieces that are usually kept under lock, key, and glass…collectors would pay fabulous things for these things…There is no one else in the room and I am in a constant state of exaltation, surely this is an experience that comes once in a life-time to one historian in a thousand.’ Also refers to the bomb damage in Sheffield, following the War (1 May 1949, 2pp);
– letter describing his work transcribing the Burke letters – ‘The whole body of documents runs to about 230 letters between 1759 and 1776…they throw a great deal of new light on Anglo-Irish relations, or rather upon Mr. Burke’s idea of those relations’ and his ‘projected book on Burke and the New York Agency, which really is becoming a large work on Burke and the Origins of the American Revolution’ (30 June 1950, 1p.);
– letter to Denis Gwynn concerning a book on Burke and Barry correspondence and his book on Edmund Burke and Charles O’Hara (28 March 1952, 2pp);
– letters on the publication of his books on Edmund Burke and Charles O’Hara and Burke, New York Agent (1956);
– lengthy commentaries on: the American (both internal and external policy, including the Korean and Vietnam Wars and race relations) and British political situations; the awarding of an honorary degree from the National University on him; his book on Lord Charles Rockingham, The Marquis (1973) and
– references to a portrait of Edmund Burke by James Barry in the National Gallery (24 March – September 1973, 4 items).
Also includes letters written by James White, Director of the National Gallery to Fr Gwynn, concerning the portrait which was presented to Trinity College Dublin and ‘is in the Andrew’s Room in the Provost’s House’ (23 August, 4 September 1973, 2 items);
Includes letter to Fr Gwynn from Prof. Hoffman’s daughter, Mary Ellen Flinn, following her father’s death on 16 December 1979. Encloses a memorial card (3 January 1980, 2pp).

Letter from Fr William Doyle SJ, writing from Stonyhurst College, to Fr Charles Farley SJ. Reports on his search in the archives of the English Province for documents relating to the Irish Province. Undertakes to copy some early nineteenth century letters for Fr Farley.