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.
