File of writings on religious topics by Fr Patrick O'Mara SJ consisting of notes for retreats and missions and lectures to sodalities and apostleship of prayer meetings.

Summary of account by Leonard and Donnelly, Builders and General Contractors for works undertaken at 27 Upper Sherrard Street in late 1953 (removing decaying timers, new coal house and sundry works) (11-16 January 1954). The Jesuits obtained vacant possession on number 27 in 1953 and put it into good condition for use (mainly) as a Sodality centre.

Two copies of souvenirs for the sodality day at Saint Francis Xavier's Church for 1949 and 1950.

Souvenir of the Jubilee of the Sodality of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Church of St Francis Xavier, Upper Gardiner Street.

Documents relating to the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Legion of Mary, mainly concerning the relationship between the Society of Jesus and the two organisations.

Handwritten account for the sodality of B.V.M - Lorcán Ua Tuathail (In Irish). Includes a list of those who attended a week-end retreat conducted in Irish by Fr Michael McGrath SJ (1872-1946), 29 - 31 January 1916. This Irish retreat was arranged with M. Colman, 1 Edward Terrace (sic) Dalkey.

Scrapbook of the Sodality Academy, Rathfarnham Castle. Contains newspaper cuttings mainly from the Irish Catholic relating to the work and history of various sodalities in Ireland. Insertions include further newspaper cuttings and the anonymous draft of an article entitled ‘Devotion to our Lady in the Sodality’.

Copy of 'Rules of the Library' of the Association of the Children of Mary, Upper Gardiner Street. Includes six rules: 6th. - The members are requested to keep the Books covered with paper (c.1900) and ‘Rules’ (c.1909).

Register of the Sodalities, Confraternities and Associations of the Church of St Francis Xavier, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin.

Register of the Sodalities, Confraternities and Associations of the Church of St Francis Xavier, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin, detailing name, when founded, whom for, time of meetings, dates of retreats and location of meetings.

Handwritten alphabetical register of names (male), 1933 - Sodality of Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Francis Xavier's Church, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin.

Supplementary register containing names of all live members transferred from old register up to 13 November 1932.

Handwritten alphabetical register of male names of all live members transferred to supplementary register 1942 - Sodality of Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary for Men, Church of St Francis Xavier, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin. Stamp, Jan. 1937 indicates lapsed members and these are not in 1937 Guild Books. First date of admission is November 1894. Index to sections (Patron: St Patrick, St Kevin...) given on inside page.

Handwritten register of names (male), Sodality of Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Francis Xavier's Church, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin. Dates of enrolement 1933 onwards until 1967.

Handwritten register of lapsed members of the Sodality of Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Francis Xavier's Church, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin, 1939-1944.

Handwriiten register of attendance for the Sodality of University College, Dublin.

Prayer card for the souls of deceased members of the Garda Síochána Sodality, based at St Francis Xavier's Church, and calendar of names of deceased members.

A file relating to a petition signed by members of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary urging the Jesuit Fathers not to close St Ignatius College, Galway.

Notebook containing Lists of Preachers of Novena to the Sacred Heart (1899-1957) and Sodality Day (1940-1954).

Photocopy of newspaper report on an address given by Fr Bernard Vaughan SJ to the Sodality of Our Lady Help of Christian, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin.

Photocopy of newspaper report of the Golden Jubilee of the Young Men's Sodality at St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin.

Newsletter of the Directors of Youth Service, the Sodality of Our Lady, published at 5, Great Denmark Street, Dublin. The newsletter was published for every month, with the exception of July and August. Includes an activity chart for the Sodality of Our Lady for 1945 – 46, 1947 - 48.

Minutes of the Council and Sodality Meetings of the Ignatian Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary (founded 1871 when Fr John Bannon SJ, Director), which was based at the Church of St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin. Sodality intended for male adults. Includes handwritten entries of names of members, pasted invitations to retreats, correspondence and notices.

Minutes of meeting for The Sodality of Our Lady Blessed Sacrament Section, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street. Includes register of members.

Memorial hymn book of the Sodality of the Immaculate Conception, B.V.M. St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin in devout memory of the Rev. Thomas Murphy SJ.

Membership card for the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Church of St Francis Xavier, Upper Gardiner Street.

List of candidates proposed for membership of the Sodality of Our Lady Help of Christians, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin. Includes members from Dublin establishments such as Pim Bros, McBirney's, Todd, Burns and Co. Ltd, Henry Street Warehouse, Arnotts, Clery and Co.

Letters to the Irish Provincial on various matters. Includes letters concerning:

• Polish scholastics coming to Ireland to study;
• the censuring individual scholastics;
• financial matters of the late Fr Henry Browne SJ;
• the taking of villas during wartime;
• a report on Irish theologians in Hong Kong;
• the question of censorship of various publications (See also ADMN/3/1 and 23);
• the question of Jesuit support for the Catholic Association for International Relations;
• a proposal by Fr Patrick J Connolly SJ to open a Jesuit school in Dartry;
• the Secret Instruction of the Holy See: Normae Quaedam De Agendi Ratione Confessariorum Circa VI Decalogi Praeceptum;
• the prohibition of female characters in plays produced by scholastics;
• comments on Director’s Service from Sodality reports of summer 1944 (See also ADMN/3/65 and 74);
• the publication of a book entitled Selected Writings of Father Ledochowski (See also ADMN/3/44);
• an invitation to the Irish Fr Provincial to the inauguration of President Seán T. Ó Ceallaigh (see also ADMN/3/43 and 76) in June 1945, signed by Taoiseach Éamon de Valera;
• relations with the Confederación Nacional de Congregaciones Marians;
• the proposal to purchase Crawfordsburn Estate, County Down (see also ADMN/3/6);
• the Chair of Education in University College, Dublin and
• some suggestions about choirs in the Province.

Letters to the Irish Fr Provincial, mostly from Fr Leonard Sheil SJ, relating to his Mission work throughout Ireland. Includes:

• letters concerning a Retreat given by Fr Sheil in Killorglin, County Kerry, a lecture in Cashel, County Tipperary and Missions in Cobh, County Cork and Harrington Street, Dublin (24 November 1943 - 7 August 1945, 6 items);
• letter from Fr Sheil offering to ‘go to any country where…I would be of use in the service of God, Africa, Australia, China or the Continent.’ Also seeks permission to become the Spiritual Director of the International Catholic Girls’ Protection Society (see also J16/5). ‘Their work (they are some thirty years in existence in Dublin) was chiefly the meeting and protecting of girls travelling, especially to England. Now it includes a registry office of which the object is to find work for girls in Ireland and so obviate the necessity of going to England.…They hope to start a small training hostel for domestics. The Archbishop is very favourable.…I have given their radio broadcast for the past five years, bringing in £100 more or less each year. The work of the Spiritual Director would be to attend the monthly meeting of the Committee…and on these occasions to give what assistance he can as a priest.…In favour of it,…it offers a field of work for youth; and…perhaps no class of youth needs help more than the young country girl, perhaps from a convent orphanage, who comes to Dublin to domestic service…’ (21 Feb. 1946, 3pp);
• letter from Socius Fr John Coyne SJ to the Irish Provincial relating to a report in the 'Irish Press' of a lecture on ‘Friends of Soviet Russia’ given by Fr Sheil to the Ringsend C.Y.M.S. in which Fr Sheil referred to Dáil Éireann members as ‘frightful loafers’. Encloses clipping of report (2 Dec. 1946, 1p.) and letter from Fr Sheil to Fr Coyne explaining the circumstances of the lecture (n.d., 2pp);
• letter from Fr Sheil reporting on a number of young men who wish to join the Society and his activities on a recent visit to the North of Ireland (2 Apr. 1947, 4pp) and
• letter to the Irish Provincial Fr Thomas Byrne SJ from Dr Edward Doorly, Bishop of Elphin stating ‘Father Sheil did not give any offence worth mentioning and further…he gave a splendid Retreat to the priests’ (18 May 1949, 1p.).

Letters to the Irish Fr Provincial from Fr Leonard Sheil SJ, various Jesuits and others relating to Fr Sheil’s work in the Jesuit church in Galway. Includes:
– letters from Fr Sheil and the Secretary of the International Catholic Girls’ Protection Society (Veritas House, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin) regarding radio broadcasts for Irish emigrants in England and an appeal for funds for the I.C.G.P.S. (see also J16/6) (7 November 1941 - 6 June 1942, 3 items);
– letters from Fr Hugh Kelly SJ (Rector, Rathfarnham Castle) and Fr Patrick O'Kelly SJ (Director of the Pioneers Association) reporting complaints about Fr Sheil’s behaviour with regard to the content of his lectures to secondary school girls, his running of the Sodalities in Galway and his comments to a young girl who came to him for religious instruction (17 November - 20 December 1942, 4 items);
– letters from Fr Sheil, Fr Hugh Kelly SJ and the Superior of the Presentation Convent, Dundrum, County Tipperary requesting permission for Fr Sheil to give various lectures and retreats and to act as Special Confessor to the nuns of Dundrum Presentation Convent (26 January - 24 May 1943, 3 items) and
– letter from Fr Sheil enclosing a list of his sodality work in Galway, to help his successor, ‘I have tried all these two years to get these works into such order that anyone could carry them on, but I have not had the time. Many details of organization have still to be put into practice. The walls are built but the roof is not yet on. However there is plenty of brains and holiness among the men and women engaged in the work. If I could have any wish where obedience is concerned, I would wish to stay with them’ (8 August 1943, 3pp).

Copy letter from Fr Superior (Fr Robert Tyndall SJ), St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin to the Sodalists concerning the Annual Sale of Work to raise money for the missions in Canton and Hong Kong.

Material relating to Fr John B Kerr SJ which includes correspondence with Irish Fr Provincials and curia, personal record and application to join the Society.

Granting of establishment for the B.V.M Immaculate Conception at St Francis Xavier's by the Congregationi Primae Primariae.

Description of a diploma on vellum issued by Fr General Mutio Vitelleschi SJ concerning the setting up of a sodality in Dublin under the name of Our Lady of the Annunciation (27 May 1627).

Crusaders of Mary

Correspondence with Dr John Charles McQuaid, Archbishop of Dublin (mostly holograph letters from the Archbishop and copies of Fr. Provincial’s replies) on various matters. Includes letters concerning:

• the purchase of additional land from Mr Bewley adjoining Milltown Park, on which to build a secondary school (See also 1940s correspondence with Archbishop McQuaid);
• the question of the payment of workers for work on parochial and ecclesiastical buildings on Holy Days of Obligation;
• the Statement issued on behalf of the Hierarchy with regard to ‘the raising of military forces and the waging of war’ (persuading ‘young men not to join the new I.R.A. and kindred groups, or if they have joined, to disassociate themselves from such groups’);
• the proposed acquisition of new buildings on Eglinton Road (now the Province Curia, No. 87 Eglinton Road) for the Society to ‘relieve a certain congestion we are experiencing at present in our Dublin Houses’;
• the appointment of Jesuits to various ecclesiastical offices;
• the Commission considering the question of Licensing Laws;
• Jesuit Missions to the Irish in Britain (see also ADMN/3/62);
• the Technical Schools – ‘It is not in any sense an exaggeration to say that the assistance of the Society has made possible the establishment of a firm system of Religious Instruction, for the first time, in the Vocational and Technical Schools’ (letter of Archbishop McQuaid to Fr Provincial, 8 June 1959, 1p.) (see also ADMN/3/61);
• the formation of a committee to select candidates for beatification among the Irish martyrs (see also ADMN/3/24; 43; 48 and 49);
• the publication of spiritual books in Irish by the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary attached to Gardiner Street Church (see also ADMN/3/59 and 65);
• the appointment of Jesuit lecturers in University College Dublin;
• the proposal to establish a federation of the Sodalities of Our Lady in the Dublin Diocese.
  Also includes covering letter and copy of the minutes of the General Meeting of the Irish Actors’ Equity Association held on 27 April 1958.

Correspondence between Fr Leonard Sheil SJ and Irish Fr Provincial Laurence Kieran SJ concerning the relationship between the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Legion of Mary.

Commemorative prayer card for the silver jubilee of the sodality of Our Lady of Christians, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin.

Calendar of the Young Men's Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin.

Calendar for the annual retreat for the officers and men of an Garda Síochána, Church of St Francis Xavier, Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin.

Calendar for St Francis Xavier's Church, Upper Gardiner Street; pamphlets containing hymns and prayers; invitation to the centenary celebrations of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin and St Patrick in the Ignatian Chapel.

Booklets relating to the Sodality of Our Lady concerning rules, meditations, prayers, explanations and history of the Sodality. Includes 'Meditations for Sodalists', 'Rules of the Sodality of Our Lady', 'Prayers for the Dying', 'How to Establish a Sodality', 'His Mother's Beads', 'No surer way to heaven', 'What is the sodality of Our Lady?', 'The Message', 'Guide to the Sodality of Our Lady', 'The Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Ireland: A short history' by Fr John MacErlean SJ, 'Sodality of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Joseph: For Invalids', 'Sodality of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Joseph: For Invalids, Daily duties', 'Magnificat Bulletin of the Sodality for the Sick' and 'Favours lost by a person who deliberately neglects to receive one holy communion'.

Attendance register for St Berchmans Sodality at St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street. Entries are arranged under headings by day of the week and remarks, which include 'Sick', 'On vacation'.

Attendance register for sodality for St Francis Xavier's, Upper Gardiner Street. Entries are arranged under headings by hours, day of the week and remarks, which include 'Sick', 'On vacation', 'Signed'.