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The Black Donnellys

from Armageddon Blues by Kyp Harness

/

lyrics

THE BLACK DONNELLYS

Undercover of the night
Down a dark country road
The men walked in no moonlight
And they bore a heavy load

Of farm tools and shovels
And one of them had a knife
They were heading to a farmhouse
To take a family’s life

In the farmhouse down the road
The family had turned in
Never knowing in their sleep
That their sleep would never end

It was sad, it was bad
The night The Black Donnellys went down

They’d been nothing but trouble
For twenty years or more
Some say it was ancient feud
Brought here from Ireland’s shore

The father James Donnelly killed a man
In a dispute over land
He served seven years
In the Kingston pen

When he got out his sons were operating a stagecoach business
Where they kept the competition in line
By slaughtering their horses,
Setting carriages on fire

Some say they weren’t guilty of all they were accused of
Some say they did more than anybody knew
But anyone who might’ve testified
Was too terrified to

Still it was sad, it was bad
The night The Black Donnellys went down

The people of the town of Lucan
Decided to send a hint
They set the Donnellys’ barn on fire
But the Donnellys hung in

The sheriff decided to arrest the two Donnelly brothers
Accompanied at his side
By a mob who’d blackened all their faces
So they’d not be recognized

They came to the farmhouse, Tom Donnelly opened the door
Resisted arrest, and cried
As the mob fell upon him
And beat him till he died

His father, James Donnelly, came to help
They hit him with a spade over the head
And knocked him to the floor
And kicked him till he was dead

The mother Johanna Donnelly came to see what was going on
They beat her to death too
And their niece, Bridget Donnelly, who was visiting from Ireland
Heaven’s gates she soon knew

Then they set the house on fire
And it burned all night till the sun appeared
Then they picked up the Donnelly’s skulls from the ashes
To keep as souvenirs

It was sad, it was bad
The night The Black Donnellys went down

Everybody in the town of Lucan
Knew somebody or was a friend of a friend
Or was themselves a member of that mob
But you’d never know it to look at them

They had a trial at which no-one was convicted
Nor was anyone ever intended to
‘Cause anyone who might’ve testified
Was too terrified to

They had another trial to settle up the matter
No-one was convicted there either
It was a crime without a criminal
A slaughter with no slaughterer

Now everyone who was in that mob is dead
And the ones who remembered them have faded away
No-one’s around to object or take offense to
The new museum with a gift shop in the foyer

But some people say they see the ghosts waiting for justice
Floating above the fields
Some say a horse won’t walk past the Donnelly homestead
After the midnight bell has pealed

My father used to say that everytime one of the mob died
A Donnelly relative would appear in town
And go to the funeral and stand by the graveside
And spit on the coffin as it went down

It was sad, it was bad
The night The Black Donnellys went down

credits

from Armageddon Blues, released April 7, 2019

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Kyp Harness Toronto, Ontario

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