Tom Barry in Guerilla Days mentions Monaghan a number of times. He says Monaghan was born in Scotland of Irish parents and deserted to the IRA with his rifle. Ambushes & Armour say Monaghan was a Royal Engineer attached to the Cameron Highlanders. Liam Deasy in Towards Ireland Free mentions him extensively. Everyone seems to agree that Peter Monaghan was not his real name, but in fact it was. Or at least the identity of "Peter Monaghan" was real.
Deasy in "Towards Ireland Free"goes into some detail on Monaghan. It was 24th Dec 1920 at 11pm when 2 British deserters were noticed , and actually called at Deasy's house for food and cigarettes. His mother supplied them with both, but as the deserters left the house they were arrested by the IRA. They held the two at Knockpolgue in Kilbrittain area. What struck Deasy as odd was that the two men had virtually nothing in common. Monaghan was a well educated man, far above the standard of the average British soldier. The other man gave his name as Tommy Clarke and was uneducated
Monaghan spoke with the accent of a well educated Scotsman. He said they had left Ringaskiddy 3 days before and had travelled across country to try to meet with and to offer to help the IRA. Monaghan claimed that he had been a Captain in the RE during the war. On being demobilised he discovered there was nothing for him back in Scotland and had joined the Cameron's under the assumed name of Peter Monaghan. Deasy says that normally they would have shot the men as spies, but they were intrigued by Monaghan's claim to have been a mining engineer before the war, and to know something about explosives. For that reason they decided to take him on to make mines for them. No mention is made of what happened to Clarke
The balance of probability is that Monaghan was a British spy. If he was he was a very brave man. My feeling is that the real Peter Monaghan was ensnared by Basil Thomson who might have offered Monaghan some sort of deal which would have enabled Monaghan to start a new life and have his past wiped clean. The British got him to USA in Nov 1919 (right place of birth, father and father's address). I think he stayed in USA and did not return for the bigamy trial. The bigamy trial in Mar 1920 was a put up job to enable a new "Peter Monaghan" to emerge, after the prison sentence would have ended in Sep 1920. This enabled the "new" Peter Monaghan to go to Ireland in Nov 1920, and immediately desert to join the IRA in Dec 1920
The 1907 army enlistment for Monaghan shows that he had "fresh complexion, grey eyes and brown hair". Deasy who interrogated the deserter in 1920 said his complexion was sallow, his hair fair, his eyes bright penetration and intelligent. While not conclusive, the passage time and the rigours of war , it does perhaps point to the emergence of a different "Monaghan" in Ireland. In additon thee is an IRA photo (The Road to Crossbarry 1999 by Diarmuid Begley) that proports to show Monaghan with 3 other volunteers, and he is strikingly taller than the other men, whereas his army record gives him as 5ft 6in
H|is pension card gives us a window on his life
1889 Born Larkhall, Lanark
1891 at 32 Louden St, Larkhall
| Wallace Monaghan | 27 | Head |
| Elizabeth Monaghan | 30 | Wife |
| John Monaghan | 3 | Son |
| Peter Monaghan | 1 | Son |
| Agnes Monaghan | 1 Mo | Daur (Daughter) |
1901 census at 20 Elderslie , Kilmaurs, Ayrshire
| Wallace Monaghan | 36 | Head |
| Elizabeth Monaghan | 38 | Wife |
| John Monaghan | 13 | Son |
| Peter Monaghan | 11 | Son |
| Agnes Monaghan | 10 | Daur (Daughter) |
| Wallace Monaghan | 8 | Son |
| James Monaghan | 5 | Son |
| William Monaghan | 3 | Son |
| David Monaghan | 1 | Son |
1907 Nov 8 enlisted #1387 in RE. He was a miner Parents Wallace & Elizabeth of Cowdenbeath. "Peter Orr Monaghan" - his mother was Elizabeth Orr
1907 Nov 19 transfers to RAMC
1910 Feb 18 dismissed - misconduct . H is service record does not detail what it was for
1911 census at Mosside Rd, Cowdenbeath
1914 Aug 8 enlisted in Cameron Highlanders 6th btn as William David
1915 Jul 10 Landed in France
1915 Aug 29 transfers to RE - 180 coy
1915 Sep 26 He was wounded (gsw throat) with 180 Tunneling Co and evacuated to England.
1916 Feb 18 made a legal deposition that his real name was Peter Monaghan, and army records changed to that
1916 Jan/Mar married in Medway, Kent to Freda Edmonds
1916 Nov 11 admitted to hospital with scalp wound while carrying rations to the front
1917 Apr 9 to 18 May 17 in Hospital with heart disease
1917 May 25 transfer to Thetford Base
1917 Dec 8 transfers to 171 RE Coy
1919 Jan 4 to Jan 9 Attached to 171 Tunneling Coy
1919 Apr 3 transfers to Z Reserve
1919 May 28 deserted
1919 Jun 20 married (bigamously) Christina Goodfellow in Dundee
1919 Nov 18 leaves UK for USA
His entry card shows born Larkhill, Scotland, father is Wallace of Mossside Rd. He says he is a Mine Inspector whose last permanent address was at Arbroath, Scotland, and he is going to a friend, Walter Muir at PO39 ,Eccles , West Virginia
1920 Mar gets 6 months for bigamy
1920 Nov 22 deserts again according to his MIC
1920 Dec 24 "deserts" and is picked up by the IRA
1920 Dec 31 Monaghan made mines for an attack on Kilbrittain RIC station - none of them worked
Monaghan posed as an Auxiliary officer in a suspected informers house, and his accent and bearing got the informer to give himself away. The informer was shot
1921 Jan 25 an attack on Innishannon RIC station was to be carried out using one of Monaghan's mines. Again it did not work
1921 Feb 11 an attack on Drimoleague Barracks with mines. The mine did explode, but failed to cause enough damage to break the walls. The explosion blew outwards rather than inwards.
1921 Feb 12 Monaghan was missing from IRA parade, and remained absent till 5 pm the next day. His story was that he had smelled poteen as he was escaping from the raid on Drimoleague, and had gone into the Poteen house to sample the whiskey. He said it took him 12 hours to recover from the effects. He then set off to find the column. Deasy still cannot work out how Monaghan found the column in that desolate countryside
1921 Mar 19 at Crossbarry Monaghan was in charge of one of the two mines - the one near Crossbarry Bridge. It failed to fire. Monaghan appears to have been shot near the mine and lay dead. An IRA volunteer, Lordan, tried to retrieve the plunger detonator, and accidentally set the mine off, as he wrestled with the mine wires. I can find nothing to substantiate the claim that some of his mines were used 12 days later at Roscarberry
Monaghan's family were entitled to a IRA medal and a pension from the Free State, but neither were claimed. However Monaghan rests today in an IRA grave at Bandon
