Lyr Req: Death of the Black Donnellys (Maclellan)

16 Oct 17 - 07:53 PM (#3882657)
Subject: Lyr Req: The Death Of The Black Donnelleys - Gene
From: PHJim

I'm looking for the lyrics to Gene Maclellan's song about the Black Donnelleys.

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16 Oct 17 - 11:09 PM (#3882668)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Death Of The Black Donnelleys - Gene
From: meself

Didn't know of this song, just had a listen to it on youtube. With all due respect to the great Gene MacLellan - the Donnelly clan is right; it's quite defamatory. It repeats the exaggerations, if not lies, that were encouraged by the murderers and their families, to justify what they did. I'm sure MacLellan just figured it was a good story. Which it is.

The Donnellys were undoubtedly a rough and violent bunch - but they weren't the only ones.

Btw, I went to school with some kids who were somehow descended from the Donnellys - they never talked about that, one way or the other, except that one of them mentioned it to me in passing - but that perhaps made the whole business a little more 'real' to me.

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16 Oct 17 - 11:27 PM (#3882671)
Subject: RE: Req:Death Of The Black Donnelleys (Gene MacLellan)
From: Joe Offer

Here's a YouTube video of the 1971 Gene Maclellan recording:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaJ8UIi1m4I

It's hard to understand a lot of it, so I don't know that I want to attempt a transcription.

You can read accounts of the "Black Donnellys" at these Websites:

• The Official Donnelly Home Page: http://www.donnellys.com/
• http://www.black-donnellys.com/the-story/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Donnellys
  [Summary: The "Black" Donnellys were an Irish family who emigrated to Ontario. Five of the family were murdered by an armed mob in the township of Biddulph in February 1880 and their farm was burned down, the culmination of long-standing conflict between the family and other residents. No one was ever convicted of the murders, despite two inconclusive trials.]

There's another song, by "Stompin' Tom" Connors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDVEK1egMVw

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17 Oct 17 - 12:28 AM (#3882673)
Subject: RE: Req:Death Of The Black Donnelleys (Gene MacLellan)
From: meself

Btw: I'm not sure what is 'official' about the 'Donnelly Home Page' - skimming it, I don't get the impression that the Donnelly descendants have anything to do with its production.

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26 Oct 17 - 05:55 PM (#3884895)
Subject: Lyr Add: DEATH OF THE BLACK DONNELYS (G Maclellan)
From: Jim Dixon

Here's an attempt at transcription:

DEATH OF THE BLACK DONNELLYS
As recorded by Gene Maclellan on his album "Lonesome River" (1971)

It all began back in the spring of 1847.
James Donnelly with wife arrived and hell broke loose in heaven.

He raised up seven sons, all bloody and as bad as he,
And never was a demon spawned as black as a Donnelly.

They settled on John Farrell's land and paid him not a pence(?).
With club in hand, they kept the land through blood and violence.

And in the town of Lucan if you saw them coming by,
They've made a private(?) step aside and hear the women and the children cry.

They slashed and hewed the horses of a man named Flanagan,
And burnt the barns of neighbouring farms time and ten times ten.(?)

Detective Hugh McKinnon, who had known them to the end,
Described them once as animals that masquerade as men.

Their reign of terror lasted years the number of thirty-three.
They were Satan's clan and there never was a man faced up to a Donnelly.

But as the good book tells us, Satan's reign is but a spell,
And thirty men who've died since then sent the Donnellys back to hell.

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26 Oct 17 - 09:30 PM (#3884929)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Death of the Black Donnellys (Maclellan)
From: meself

The "thirty men" murdered Jim Donnelly, his wife, two of his sons - and a 16-year-old niece who was visiting from Ireland. No one was ever convicted, despite detailed eye-witness testimony of a 13-year-old neighbour and one of the surviving Donnelly brothers. For the record.

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