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.

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.