More than 2,000 letters that detailed financial correspondence between sub landlords and landlord agents to tenants during the famine have been sold to an Irish archive.

Adam's auctioneers cannot reveal who bought the letters at this time, but an announcement will be made by the buyers in due course.

A spokesperson for Adam's said, "After intensive successful negotiations, with Kenny's of Galway acting as intermediary, we are delighted to announce that the Stewart and Kincaid Famine letters are to be kept together as a collection and given to an important archive here in Ireland, where they will, in due course, be available for academic research."

Some members of parliament and the general public had called for the government to buy the documents as they worried that American collectors would buy the letters.

The collection also contains letters from the Catholic clergy asking landlords to show some mercy towards their tenants.

The letters were discovered in the archives of Dublin solicitors Stewart and Kincaid, who represented landlords such as Lord Palmerstown, Col Wingfield [Sligo], Daniel Ferrall [Roscommon], the Marquess of Westmeath, the Stratford estates of Clare and Limerick and the Frankfort estates in Kilkenny and Carlow.

Adam's director Stuart Cole said the letters were an "unparalleled collection.” Cole revealed that there would be "a lot of very disappointed people" who would have wanted to purchase some of the letters.

However, Cole was happy that the letters were being kept in Ireland and that the buyer was allowing the documents to be used in academic research.

Cole revealed that the letters were in lots 1-147 and that it was fortunate that the collector bought them all.

Lots 148-332 contain sculptures and literature related to the famine, which will all go on sale Tuesday.