The Prince Edward Island Connection:
Like every other area in the country, Emyvale suffered mass emigration as a result of the
Great famine (1845 - 1848). However a lesser emigration took place between 1830 and
1841 and this was to form a unique link between Emyvale and Prince Edward Island,
Canada. The man responsible for this exodus was Very Rev. Canon Patrick Moynagh, PP
Donagh. He encouraged and indeed, in some cases, paid for his parishioners to emigrate
to this fertile island.
Professor Brendan O’Grady, of Charlottetown University, who has carried out so much
research in this aspect of Irish emigration to PEI has
written: Of the several thousand immigrants from
two dozen Irish counties, who came to PEI in the first
half of the 19th century, the largest group originated
in Co. Monaghan. Between 1830 and 1850, they came
out from the baronies of Truagh and Monaghan,
deserting their cottages in Donagh, Tydavnet,
Clontibret, Emyvale, Glaslough, Tyholland and
Monaghan town, for the promise of a better life in
Canada’s smallest Province. Here they carved
communities out of the wilderness, cultivated the
clearings, applied their skills in many trades, and made their mark on the political and
ecclesiastical history of a place, once officially called ‘New
Ireland’.
Canon Moynagh was a self-educated man and spent some
years in Tydavnet before coming to Donagh in 1815. As PP of
Donagh, he resided in a little house in Mullaghbrack. He
remained as PP until his death in 1860, during which time he
also served as Prior of Lough Derg for 30 years. He built St.
Mary’s Church, Glennan, in1837 and was always very
generous to the poor. He was so revered by the people of the parish that a large vault was
erected at St. Patrick’s Church, Corracrin, to hold his remains. The inscription on the tomb
reads: ‘Underneath are deposited the remains of the Very Revd. Patrick Moynagh, Parish
Priest of this parish, and for many years Prior of Lough Derg. During his long and
laborious life, he was a constant benefactor of the poor, and at his death bequeathed the
interest of all the property he was possessed of, for the annual relief of the poor of this
parish, which had been so long blessed by his edifying life. He departed this life on the
2nd August, 1860, aged 82 years’.
The first realisation of the close connection between Donagh and PEI came in the late
1950's when Professor Brendan O'Grady began his research and discovered that his wife
was descended from a Delany family who resided in Emyvale, Ireland. The Delanys were
stone carvers who had taken over from the MacKays, who were employed by the Leslie
family and originally came from Scotland. Correspondence ensued between Brendan and
mainly three people here - Seamus McCluskey, Bennie Hackett and Fr. Barney McCarney,
and Brendan also paid a visit to Emyvale. However the connection remained on an
academic level until the late '80's when the PEI authorities started to organise Irish
festivals and encouraged the links with Emyvale Ireland.
A fresh connection was made to coincide with the island festival - ‘We’re Akin To Ireland
Year’ in 1990 and after many visits by officials both ways, County Monaghan and PEI were
twinned Local Councillor, Willie McKenna, and Seamus McCluskey, played a major role in
the re-establishment of the new ties. Since then a big number of inhabitants from the
island have visited Emyvale, and many of them have discovered the ancestral home and
have been introduced to relatives.
Monaghan has also been twinned with The Miramichi, New Brunswick as thousands of
Irish and Monaghan people in particular, landed there on the ‘coffin ships’ and some
settled there and others made their way further west.
