Admission, early life in the Society of Jesus and correspondence of Fr William Lee SJ,with his Irish Fr Provincials from time in Zambia concerning his work at Gonzaga College, Dublin and in the Milltown Institute.

A file relating to Fr Peter M Troddyn SJ. Includes correspondence concerning his appointment as acting editor of 'Studies' following advice to Fr Roland Burke Savage SJ from his doctor to be relieved of this position (20 - 22 December 1967, 2 items). Includes correspondence concerning the publication of a manuscript by Fr Francis Finegan SJ 'The Jesuits in Ireland 1598-1773 (17 December 1973-13 December 1974, 6 items, and 6-15 March 1976, 3 items), correspondence concerning a memorial fund in honour of Dan Chambers, and ex pupil of Mungret who died in a car accident (December 1977 - 16 January 1978, 4 items). Including application to join the Society, correspondence with Irish Fr Provincials, memorial card and catalogue entries.

Letter from Fr Boursaud, Secretary to the Fr General, to Fr Tuite. Reports that the Fr General is very pleased to hear of the ‘good disposition shown by F. Clery’, and thanks Fr Tuite for sending him the ‘Australian paper’, which gave news of the work of the mission in Australia, including a reference to St Ignatius’ College. Sends the greetings of Fr Porter, who asks Fr Tuite to look in the archives for an instruction from the Fr General around 1878, which modified the ordination of Fr Roothaan on the Minervale.

Letter from Fr Thomas A Finlay SJ, 35 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin to Irish Fr Provincial concerning the deed of purchase for the site of University Hall. Remarks that it cannot be found but that it may be in Gardiner Street. Suggests that the Provincial should make a strong room available so that all of the property deeds can be kept safely.

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(Edmund) Burke papers…they are largely the originals of the published letters, but there is also a rich collection of unpublished letters of Earl Fitzwilliam to Burke in the 1790’s and a few other fairly important letters that never have been printed…I am, it seems the first person to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).

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 to the Irish Fr Provincial from Fr John MacErlean SJ on various matters including:
– Fr MacErlean’s censure on a Society Appeal for Funds;
– the progress of his historical research, news from Rome and news about the Society in Australia;
– the establishment of the Society in Ireland including a ‘list of whatever documents exist to my knowledge regarding the establishment of the Society in Ireland…What exactly the establishment of the Society in Ireland means I do not know. It may be a question for a canonist to solve. The canonical succession of the New Society to the Old is disputed, and Rome has never decided the point’;
– the proposed purchase of a volume consisting of ‘the indexes of the first eleven volumes of the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum down to the 3rd volume of April’ and the binding which is ‘much older than the contents…the binding of a Missal that was presented to Father (Nicholas) Leynach in 1613 - 14 by Francis Bray, at a time when Fr Leynach was trying to establish a chapel or oratory of the Society in Clonmel’;
– the Irish College in Rome;
– lists of books the Province could present to ‘the library to be established for the use of the Coll(egium) Scriptorum and a ‘list of those members of our Province who might now or hereafter be fit to cooperate with the Collegium Scriptorum in the production of works’ and a
– ‘Brief Sketch of the Work of the Irish Jesuits from the foundation to the Suppression of the Society 1540 – 1773’ (11pp).

Province file for Fr Seán J McCarron SJ which includes correspondence with Irish Fr Provincials and curia, personal record and application to join the Society.