Guestbook for those on retreat at Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin.

Handwritten monthly accounts of costs of food and supplies for retreats at Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin (includes bread, butter, sugar, milk, tea and jam).

Draft of a circular letter from [ ], Milltown Park, Dublin to [ ] concerning the organisation of a retreat for lay gentleman.

Letter from Bishop Thomas Furlong to Dr O'Reilly. Asks him to provide a retreat at Milltown Park, Dublin for four young men whom Bishop Furlong intends to ordain at the end of the month.

Letter from Fr John Bannon SJ to Fr Aloysius Sturzo SJ. Informs the latter that [Br.] Carolan wishes to make a few days’ retreat at Milltown Park, Dublin.

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.).

Lists of spiritual books suitable for distribution by Directors at Diocesan Retreats.

Material on retreats and the retreat house at Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin (removed from ledger folder). Includes:

• list of retreatants at Rathfarnham Castle and notice of opening of retreat house (1922);
• Honorary Secretary's Reports (November 1947-March 1949);
• list of house renovations (August 1949-August 1950);
• costings and receipts for work on the retreat house which includes glass, grotto, kneelers, lamp, radiators, roof, statutes and tabernacle (1949-1962);
• ‘History of Our Lady's Grotto, erected by D.U.T. Co. Employees 1925’ by Thomas Scally, ex-Superintendent. Includes references to the Jesuit school, St Francis Xavier, Lower Dorset Street, better known as Father Gaffney's school (1 April 1950);
• income and expenditure for Laymen's Retreat Association (1948-1953);
• newsletter of the Laymen's Retreat Association, Rathfarnham Castle entitled the Week End Echo (vol. 1-5, 7), (Christmas 1953-September 1955);
• handicap sweepstakes results for Laymen's Retreat Association at Rathfarnham Castle (1954-55)
• order of time for retreats for Chinese students at Rathfarnham Castle (4 April 1955);
• correspondence from Michael Scott, Architect, for drawings of the retreat house, Rathfarnham Castle (1955-57);
• income for retreat house at Rathfarnham Castle (1958-59);
• schedule of estimates for proposed decoration at Rathfarnham Castle (1958-1961);
• drawings, correspondence and accounts from James A. Doyle Architect, for works at the retreat house, Rathfarnham Castle (1959-1960);
• newspaper report of ‘Restoration of grotto erected in 1924 by D.U.T.C. men’ from Nuacht CIE (23 October 1964);
• notes on Laymen’s Retreat Association at Rathfarnham Castle, Christian Life Communities (CLC) seminar (21 April 1974);
• Guidelines for the constitution for the Laymen's Retreat Association & Christian Life Communities (CLC) (1977);
• notice of the restoration work done by the Association of Retreat Promotors for the Laymen’s Retreat Association (nd.);
• postcard with order of time on reverse of weekend retreats at Rathfarnham Castle and notice of non-attendance (nd.);

Minute book of the Layman's Retreat Association, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin (This Association subsequently operated from Milltown Park).

Photograph of individuals in front of Our Lady’s Grotto, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin. The priest front left maybe Fr Michael Sweetman SJ.

Photograph of individuals praying at Our Lady’s Grotto, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin.

Mounted photographs of those on retreats at Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin. A Jesuit(s) is in front row.

Retreat register containing the names and addresses of those attending retreats at Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin and the date attended for the Sacred Heart Register Mona Mors Record.