Acquisition of McMonagle Family Letter Collection (1860–1903)

Acquired by the NLI under the care of the Special Collections team, the series ranges from 1860 to 1903 across both continents capturing frontline experience, family separation and the Irish emigrant experience.

The collection includes 25 letters sent to Cornelius McMonagle, also known as Con/Condy, from Boyoughter in Co Donegal who emigrated to America in the late 1850s/early 1860s. The letters were written by his brother, friends and family members who had settled or served in America, alongside letters from his family back in Ireland. Notably for the time, all the letters are in the English language despite Cornelius and his relatives hailing from the Donegal Gaeltacht.

The letters include correspondence from his brother Neal McMonagle, serving in the 52nd Pennsylvanian Regiment, writing from South Carolina, and his brother-in-law Patrick Hughes, serving in the 58th Pennsylvania Regiment, writing from Virginia and North Carolina. 

The historical value of these letters is particularly evident in a letter dated 22 December 1863 in which Neal writes from Morris Island, South Carolina, describing the brutal winter conditions and his desperate desire to come home: “Do all you can to get me from hear [here], as soon as you can” he begs his brother, describing exposure, hunger, and the realities of combat as Christmas approaches. 

He writes: 

“this is [a] miserable place, we don’t think nothing of seeing about twenty or thirty men lying dead on the beach here every tide comes in, we walk along side of them and passes them by and don’t let on ourselves that we see them until the tide washes them out again…” 

Equally moving is a letter from the family matriarch Anne McMonagle in Boyoughter, pleading with her sons in America to write home. She writes that she has not heard from them in “a long time” and asks for proof that they are alive and well: 

“My dear Condy and Neal after a long absence we take up our pen in hands to inform you both about this country. It seems to us that you both are not living this long time or you have forgotten us all.” 

Letter from Anne McMonagle, Co Donegal, to Neal and Cornelius McMonagle,  Pennsylvania, 27 August 1860. 

Crónán Ó Doibhlin, Head of Special Collections at the National Library of Ireland, said: 

“This collection of family letters is a remarkable surviving testament of the importance and precariousness of family connection during the mid-19th century. They document the immense challenges faced by Irish emigrants in The United States of America during the Civil War period, and describe separation, isolation, hardship and the horrors of war in detail. They also provide a real insight into the importance of literacy and the simple act of letter writing in this period for families who have been separated or dispersed.” 

The McMonagle Family Letter Collection documents the personal impact of emigration before mass telegraphy, when a single letter might have been the only link between continents and would have taken weeks to arrive by mailboat. Although well-preserved, the letters showed signs of wear from repeated opening and folding over 150 years and essential conservation was undertaken to clean the paper with Japanese tissue used to repair tears. The collection is now safely preserved and available to the public for consultation.