1
BELGIAN REFUGEES COMMITTEE,
62, Upper Mount Street,
DUBLIN 11th November, 1915. Very Reverend and dear Sir, I am desired by my Committee
to inform you that
Father Ottevaere, S.J., the Chaplain to the refugees in
Ireland, has asked that the members of the Committee be
invited to the Te Deum and ceremony to be held at the
Church of St. Francis Xavier, Upper Gardiner Street,
Dublin, on Monday next, the 15th instant, at 4 p.m., in
celebration of the Feast Day of His Majesty, the King of
the Belgians. After the ceremony there will be a Concert and
Entertainment for the refugees in St. Francis Xavier's
Hall, adjoining the Church. I think Father Ottevaere
would be grateful to know the names of the members of
the Committee who find it convenient to attend. Yours faithfully, T.J. Fallon
Hon. Secretary. Very Rev. T.V. Nolan, S.J.,
St. Francis Xavier's,
Upper Gardiner Street,
DUBLIN.
A letter from T. J. Fallon, honorary secretary, Belgian Refugees Committee to Father
Provincial, Thomas V. Nolan (1867-1941) informing Fr. Nolan that Fr. Ottevaere, the
chaplain to Ireland's Belgian refugees, has asked the Committee to attend the upcoming
ceremony and concert on 15 November 1915 at the Church of St. Francis Xavier, Dublin.
Fr. Nolan was the Provincial of the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus (1912-1922)
and was a member of the Distribution Committee which looked after the welfare and
distribution of the the Belgian refugees who arrived in Ireland as a consequence of
the First World War. The Irish Jesuits were asked by the Local Government Board (17
October 1914) to go down to the North Wall and meet the 100 Belgian refugees, due
to ‘a few of your Order, who speak Flemish’. The Irish Jesuits helped to house refugees
and initiate schemes to aid them, both physically and spiritually.