PEI Revisited
Much has been written and talked about regarding the exodus from North Monaghan to Prince Edward Island around 1830 and, although the connection with descendants of those emigrants was always there, it was in the late 1950’s when Emyvale, Ireland, discovered that there was an Emyvale, PEI, and that local families had gone there to seek a new life. Fr. Barney McCarney, Benny Hackett and Seamus McCluskey attempted to establish a new connection but the time was not right and few showed any interest. It was not until 1989 when Tommy Makem arrived in Monaghan as an ‘ambassador from PEI’ to see if a link could be set up as the people on PEI were holding an ‘Akin to Ireland’ festival. Willie McKenna (The Hill) was his first point of call and the rest is history. But the full history is an intriguing story and I am giving a summary here of how events led up to over 3,000 people from this area of North Monaghan heading off to PEI between 1830 and 1850. In all about 10,000 Irish people went directly to PEI in the space of about 60 years and many other hundreds arrived there having emigrated to New Brunswick, Miramichi, Nova Scotia, and other places and then moved on to PEI. It was not just Irish immigrants but thousands went there from many other countries and Scotland was high on that list as it all depended on the Land Agent who was colonising plots of land as he would usually try to get people from his own country. For the Irish to travel there they had to go by Ship, some of which carried up to 800 passengers. The cost of the one way trip was £2 or £3 per person(food not included) and it took anything from 30 to 45 days to get there. For some the journey would be too much and they died on the way and others lost their lives when they were ship wrecked in a storm. Dry land was a welcome sight. But then you did not know where you were going or what awaited you. As well most Irish spoke Gaeilge and could not understand or converse with the ‘natives’. Their names were spelt phonetically and their addresses too. And so you found McNallen (McNally), MacWade (McQuaid) Mallonie (Maloney) etc. As well the Irish were coming from a country where the Irish were treated very poorly and had to fight for their rights and their lives. There was a similar situation in PEI as British rule was there too and bigotry and prejudice against the Irish was rife and many of these immigrants left an Ireland in the throes of a Great famine. Gradually the Irish established themselves and integrated well though never abandoning their Irish heritage and traditions. So how did over 3,000 people from North Monaghan decide to go to PEI? Samuel Leard and Margaret and family are regarded as the first known civilian immigrants from Ireland to PEI and they arrived in 1768. A Captain John McDonald from Scotland bought up large tracts of land in PEI and he, in 1772, organised a big number of Scottish people to come to PEI and he set them on land and gave them a new life. Over the years Ulster Catholics went to Glasgow to get work to raise money to pay the rent at home. Some remained there but conditions were atrocious, housing very poor, wages very low, and faction fights between men from different Ulster counties fought regularly. Monaghan men and Donegal men did not like each other. Some of the Ulster men, including Monaghan personnel, went to PEI with the group in 1772. Thomas Duffy and Peter McMahon from North Monaghan are presumed to have been among them. Now in 1829 Fr. John McDonald, who had inherited the large estate of his deceased father, organised another crowd of poor and struggling Glasgow residents, mainly from Ulster, to go to PEI with him. They, a group of 260, arrived safely in PEI on 19th May 1830. They were regarded as ‘Glasgow Irish’. It is thought that one of those, who travelled with Fr. McDonald, asked him to contact Canon Moynagh in Donagh and to organise a group from Monaghan. He very soon had a big number wishing to travel and he paid their fares and they left for PEI. A James Trainor, a native of North Monaghan but now in PEI, was immediately sent to Monaghan to recruit another batch and so between 1835 and 1850 hundreds of families from this area resettled in PEI. However there were families from neighbouring areas and counties involved as well. It seems that few Monaghan people went to PEI after 1850. Those expatriates in PEI, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Miramichi etc never lost their Irishness and held on to their Irish heritage and traditions, which they passed on from one generation to the next. This is why they still hold the Akin to Ireland festival and other events celebrating their Irishness and why so many of them have been tracing their lineage back to Ireland and their enjoyment when they make the family link. BACK
Much has been written and talked about regarding the exodus from North Monaghan to Prince Edward Island around 1830 and, although the connection with descendants of those emigrants was always there, it was in the late 1950’s when Emyvale, Ireland, discovered that there was an Emyvale, PEI, and that local families had gone there to seek a new life. Fr. Barney McCarney, Benny Hackett and Seamus McCluskey attempted to establish a new connection but the time was not right and few showed any interest. It was not until 1989 when Tommy Makem arrived in Monaghan as an ‘ambassador from PEI’ to see if a link could be set up as the people on PEI were holding an ‘Akin to Ireland’ festival. Willie McKenna (The Hill) was his first point of call and the rest is history. But the full history is an intriguing story and I am giving a summary here of how events led up to over 3,000 people from this area of North Monaghan heading off to PEI between 1830 and 1850. In all about 10,000 Irish people went directly to PEI in the space of about 60 years and many other hundreds arrived there having emigrated to New Brunswick, Miramichi, Nova Scotia, and other places and then moved on to PEI. It was not just Irish immigrants but thousands went there from many other countries and Scotland was high on that list as it all depended on the Land Agent who was colonising plots of land as he would usually try to get people from his own country. For the Irish to travel there they had to go by Ship, some of which carried up to 800 passengers. The cost of the one way trip was £2 or £3 per person(food not included) and it took anything from 30 to 45 days to get there. For some the journey would be too much and they died on the way and others lost their lives when they were ship wrecked in a storm. Dry land was a welcome sight. But then you did not know where you were going or what awaited you. As well most Irish spoke Gaeilge and could not understand or converse with the ‘natives’. Their names were spelt phonetically and their addresses too. And so you found McNallen (McNally), MacWade (McQuaid) Mallonie (Maloney) etc. As well the Irish were coming from a country where the Irish were treated very poorly and had to fight for their rights and their lives. There was a similar situation in PEI as British rule was there too and bigotry and prejudice against the Irish was rife and many of these immigrants left an Ireland in the throes of a Great famine. Gradually the Irish established themselves and integrated well though never abandoning their Irish heritage and traditions. So how did over 3,000 people from North Monaghan decide to go to PEI? Samuel Leard and Margaret and family are regarded as the first known civilian immigrants from Ireland to PEI and they arrived in 1768. A Captain John McDonald from Scotland bought up large tracts of land in PEI and he, in 1772, organised a big number of Scottish people to come to PEI and he set them on land and gave them a new life. Over the years Ulster Catholics went to Glasgow to get work to raise money to pay the rent at home. Some remained there but conditions were atrocious, housing very poor, wages very low, and faction fights between men from different Ulster counties fought regularly. Monaghan men and Donegal men did not like each other. Some of the Ulster men, including Monaghan personnel, went to PEI with the group in 1772. Thomas Duffy and Peter McMahon from North Monaghan are presumed to have been among them. Now in 1829 Fr. John McDonald, who had inherited the large estate of his deceased father, organised another crowd of poor and struggling Glasgow residents, mainly from Ulster, to go to PEI with him. They, a group of 260, arrived safely in PEI on 19th May 1830. They were regarded as ‘Glasgow Irish’. It is thought that one of those, who travelled with Fr. McDonald, asked him to contact Canon Moynagh in Donagh and to organise a group from Monaghan. He very soon had a big number wishing to travel and he paid their fares and they left for PEI. A James Trainor, a native of North Monaghan but now in PEI, was immediately sent to Monaghan to recruit another batch and so between 1835 and 1850 hundreds of families from this area resettled in PEI. However there were families from neighbouring areas and counties involved as well. It seems that few Monaghan people went to PEI after 1850. Those expatriates in PEI, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Miramichi etc never lost their Irishness and held on to their Irish heritage and traditions, which they passed on from one generation to the next. This is why they still hold the Akin to Ireland festival and other events celebrating their Irishness and why so many of them have been tracing their lineage back to Ireland and their enjoyment when they make the family link. BACK
PEI Revisited