Letter from Fr. William Mulvihill to Stíophán Conneely, 6 September 1916 Letters 1916-1923 William Mulvihill

This work was originally published by Maynooth University in Ireland in 2017. In 2026 this data, stored in a relational database was extracted and converted into this TEI/XML document.

 Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities Vienna, AT 2026

This is an open access work licensed under Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Letter from William Mulvihill to Stíophán Conneely (1893-1965). Mulvihill congratulates Conneely on being accepted into the novitiate of the Redemptorist Congregation in Ireland. He expresses contentment at being instrumental in Conneely's decision to pursue a religious vocation. He also advises Conneely regarding his future studies. The letter ends with Mulvihill instructing Conneely to 'remember the poor fellows who gave their lives in Dublin for Irish freedom and Irish nationality', to pray for them and to assist at masses for them. Mulvihill calls on Conneely to especially remember Padraig Pearse.William Mulvihill was a Catholic priest while Stíophán Conneely, a native of Inis Mór in the Aran Islands, was about to join the Redemptorist Congregation in Ireland. Mulvihill had promoted the latter's vocation and had acted as his sponsor when applying to join the novitiate of the Redemptorist Congregation. Conneely would go on to achieve some notoriety as a mission priest in the west of Ireland, particularly in the early-1930s, when he led a series of missions, known as 'the póitín missions', against póitín distilling. Conneely died in 1965, aged 72.

 Redemptorist Provincial Archive, Dublin RPAD CON/51, RPAD CON/51 https://letters1916.ie/item/969 English William Mulvihill 1916-09-06T00:00:00 Bundoran, county Donegal, Ireland Stíophán Conneely Inis Mór, Aran Islands, Ireland Male Faith Easter Rising Ireland 1916

The data in these XML files was generated based on a data dump from the Magellan database (https://github.com/Maynooth-Center-for-Digital-Humanities/Magellan). Each database record has been converted to a JSON file (https://github.com/letters1916static/letters-data/tree/main/json). The element section of the JSON file contains the TEI-encoded contents of the letters. The TEI XML has been cleaned and made well-formed using a Python script (https://github.com/letters1916static/letters-data/tree/main/src).

 M. J. MALLEN, Proprietor. Marine Hotel, Bundoran, Co. Donegal. Sept. 6th 1916 Dear Stephen, Hope you will excuse my delay in replying to your letter — I am very glad that you have found an entrance to the Redemptorist Novitiate & wish you every joy. It is a great privilege to me to have been instrumental in some small way in bringing you there and I hope the old friendship begun now some many years may long survive. I wish you every success in your studies — both sacred & profane — and would advise you not to omit picking up any knowledge or accomplishment that may even in a remote way perfect you for the work that is one day to be yours. I do not know that I have much more to add — only this — you remember the poor fellows who gave their lives in Dublin for 'Irish freedom an Irish nationality: Well, you will remember them in your prayers — and assist at Holy Mass for their deliverance from Purgatory. I have every reason to assure you that they will not forget you in return. Good—bye now and above all do not forget Pearse — no man in our day loved Ireland more purely or unselfishwith a more unselfish love and Connard had a special place in his generous heart beannact dé leatSincerely Yours, William Mulvihill. P.S. I expect to see you before Xmas on my way to Dublin William Mulvihill Letter from Fr. William Mulvihill to Stíophán Conneely, 6 September 1916 Inis Mór, Aran Islands, Ireland Letter from Fr. William Mulvihill to Stíophán Conneely, 6 September 1916 Bundoran, county Donegal, Ireland Letter from Fr. William Mulvihill to Stíophán Conneely, 6 September 1916