Black Donnellys
Encyclopedia
The Black Donnellys is the common nickname
of the Donnelly family who emigrated from County Tipperary
, Ireland
, to Canada
in about 1845–1846, and who participated in a notorious feud
in Biddulph Township in Middlesex County
, Ontario, which culminated in a massacre in which five family members were killed.
(Those marked 1880 were killed on February 4.)
The Biddulph feud had its origins in Ireland
, and had begun almost two centuries before the elder James Donnelly's birth.
It so happened through an accident of history, that Biddulph Township collected just the right concentration and distribution of Whiteboys
, Blackfeet and Orangemen
, to cause the Old Country feud to be rekindled.
, trespassing, verbal assault, attempted murder, murder of Patrick Farrell, theft
, robbery
, assaulting a police officer, as well as various altercations with many residents of the Biddulph Township. The Donnellys were not found guilty of everything of which they were accused but through their actions they made many enemies within the township. This all sounds like the Donnellys were a constant source of strife and destruction in their community, but these types of crimes were common for the county in which they lived. It was not just the men of the family who would get into altercations with the law as Johannah was noted to swear at officers quite often, specifically constable
Carroll.
, property damage
and physical violence cases in Biddulph.
The Peace Society's role was to uphold their Code, something the Donnellys were never shy about ignoring. James Donnelly was liberal enough that at one point he even donated money to the building of an Anglican church, outraging the Biddulph Peace Society in the process.
on the southeastern quarter of Lot 18, Concession 6 (also known as the Roman Line
), Biddulph Township, Canada West (which would become Ontario at Canadian Confederation in 1867). He did not have the money to actually purchase the land from its absentee landlord (who had originally bought the land from the Canada Company
), apparently hoping no one would ever come by to claim it. It is unknown whether or not James Donnelly actually knew the piece of wilderness he had decided upon was owned by anyone. Squatting was a very common North American frontier practice and one often supported by the courts of the land in the establishment of common law
property rights.
In 1856 or 1857, Patrick Farrell purchased land containing the quarter James Donnelly had squatted upon, and was surprised to discover Donnelly's occupation once he arrived from Ireland to take possession of his land. The matter went to court in 1857, with Farrell wishing to evict Donnelly. The disputants eventually agreed to allow Donnelly to keep and reside on 25 acres (101,171.5 m²) of the land, which was somewhat less than what Donnelly had actually cleared over the ten years he had occupied it.
Farrell, in spite of his agreement in court, was bitter about having had to give up some of the area for which he had paid, and vocally lambasted the Donnellys in public for it. During a barn raising
bee on Saturday, June 27, 1857, James Donnelly became engaged in a drunken brawl with Farrell. Farrell suffered a blow to the head from a handspike
thrown by Donnelly. It is this incident that is generally considered to have drawn the Donnelly family into the feud. Pat Farrell died on June 29, and James Donnelly then became a wanted man. (Interestingly, Farrell's young son was adopted by the Donnellys and was brought up by them until adulthood.) By the time police arrived to arrest James, however, he had seemingly disappeared and his wife Johannah refused to speak on the subject. It was later discovered he had been staying in the barn and working the fields while dressed in his wife's clothing. Almost two years later, James turned himself in to Jim Hodgins, a sympathetic Justice of the Peace
.
James was sentenced to be hanged on September 17, 1859. A petition for clemency started by his wife Johannah saw his sentence reduced to seven years in Kingston Penitentiary
.
, Lucan and Exeter
, was operated by William and his brothers Michael, John, and Thomas, even rivaling the official mail stage that had been in business since 1838.
The Hawkshaw stage line soon felt the pressure of competition from the Donnellys. In October 1873, Hawkshaw sold his stage to Patrick Flanagan, a husky Irishman, who was determined to drive Donnellys out of business.
This set the stage for the feud between the Donnelly Stagecoach and the Flanagan & Crawly Stage — The Stagecoach Feud, as it came to be known. Stages were either smashed or burned, horses were savagely beaten or killed, and stables burned to the ground.
The violence that erupted as a result of the Stagecoach Feud was mostly blamed on the Donnellys and gave the family a bad reputation. From that time on, almost every crime committed was blamed on the family, but although they were charged with numerous crimes, "few convictions were secured against them".
Since the bodies were burned along with the house, it was impossible for the coroner
to determine the cause of death beyond that of the fire, but the constable who gathered up the remains of the Donnellys reported copious amounts of blood on the ground in front of the house, which corroborates with John O’Connor’s testimony of Tom being beaten mercilessly with a spade and other farm tools after escaping the house. Had the skulls still been at the scene of the crime they could have been used by the undertaker to determine any blunt force trauma to the head, but the bodies were not recovered until the middle of the following day, February 5, leaving the corpses open to looters who wanted mementoes of the night’s events and so stole the skulls from the bodies.
William Donnelly survived and was listed as the informant on the death certificates for all five, dated April 1 and 2, 1880, with the cause of death listed as "supposed to be murdered."
.
The second trial occurred in January 1881. During preparations, the prosecution, led by Aemilius Irving
and Charles Hutchinson, displayed evidence of involvement in the massacre
by the Biddulph Peace Society, up to and including the parish priest, Father John Connolly.
The most damning evidence was to come from two brothers, Jim and Bill Feeheley, Whiteboys known to have been involved in the crime. Since the massacre, they had been showing signs of remorse, and had confessed to the authorities. They had apparently been paid off by a nervous Biddulph Peace Society to leave the area forever. This they did, emigrating to Michigan
. The prosecution successfully had them extradited
back to Biddulph to stand trial, but then the prosecution had second thoughts.
The prosecutor, according to Orlo Miller, eventually decided that the potential damage and death toll from a successful conviction was too great. The introduction of Father John Connolly as a suspect was a dangerous proposition as much of the audience was strongly polarized along religious lines, and the matter was dropped.
In recent years, several newcomers to the area have started businesses centred on the Donnelly story, creating tourism venues for visitors fascinated by the events surrounding their deaths, much to the dismay of older inhabitants. One of the more well known of these myths is that of the Midnight Lady who supposedly rides up and down the Roman Line every February 4. Another is that the ghosts of the murdered family members can be seen floating in the fields near the murder site and that horses will not ride past the former Donnelly homestead after midnight.
Ray Fazakas best illustrates the situation in his book, when he states that despite the fact that the Donnelly's have been removed from Biddulph, they have managed to remain alive thanks to Canadian folklore.
The Lucan Area Heritage Society, District Lion's Club, and Township of Lucan Biddulph raised over $600,000 for the construction of a new museum building after the University of Western Ontario identified the need for a new museum to spur economic growth in the community. This building reached completion in 2008, and opened to the public in 2009. The new Lucan Area Heritage & Donnelly Museum now highlights the Ray Fazakas Donnelly Collection, rotating exhibits, the "Donnelly Log Cabin", and the Hearn barn, which displays a variety of artifacts relating to agriculture in Biddulph in the past 150 years.
Now that the story of the Black Donnellys is being retold in the town where it all began, the Lucan Area Heritage & Donnelly Museum has visitors from all over the country come to learn about the area's history, and the events that occurred on February 4, 1880.
wrote two songs in reference to the Donnelly family: "The Black Donnellys' Massacre" and "Jenny Donnelly", the latter of which was covered by Chantal Vitalis.
The Donnellys are one of the subjects of Steve Earle
's song "Justice in Ontario", (the other subject being a 1979 motorcycle gang murder in Port Hope
, Ontario
).
In 2005, Chris Doty
wrote The Donnelly Trials, a play he based on the court script where twelve members of the audience become the jury deciding the fate of the defendants with the script providing two separate endings for either a "Guilty" or "Not Guilty" verdict. The play was performed in the same courtroom in which the actual trial took place.
In 2007, an NBC
television series entitled The Black Donnellys
followed the lives of four Irish brothers and their entrance into organized crime in Hell's Kitchen
, New York City. The title is a homage to the infamous family, though the show is otherwise not related to the historical Donnellys.
In the 1980s, the London, Ontario
punk band The Black Donnellys formed, taking their name from this infamous feud.
Nickname
A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....
of the Donnelly family who emigrated from County Tipperary
County Tipperary
County Tipperary is a county of Ireland. It is located in the province of Munster and is named after the town of Tipperary. The area of the county does not have a single local authority; local government is split between two authorities. In North Tipperary, part of the Mid-West Region, local...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in about 1845–1846, and who participated in a notorious feud
Feud
A feud , referred to in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, or private war, is a long-running argument or fight between parties—often groups of people, especially families or clans. Feuds begin because one party perceives itself to have been attacked, insulted or wronged by another...
in Biddulph Township in Middlesex County
Middlesex County, Ontario
Middlesex County is a primarily rural county in Southwestern Ontario. Landlocked, the county is bordered by Huron and Perth counties on the north, Oxford County on the east, Elgin County on the south, and Chatham-Kent and Lambton County on the west.The seat is the city of London, although the city...
, Ontario, which culminated in a massacre in which five family members were killed.
The Donnelly family
- James Donnelly - patriarch (1816–1880)
- Johannah Donnelly - (née Magee, or MacGee) his wife, and mother of all the children (1823–1880)
- James Donnelly Jr. - son, (1842–1877)
- William Donnelly - son, born with a clubfoot (1845–1897)
- John Donnelly - son, the first child born in Canada (1847–1880)
- Patrick Donnelly - son (1849–1929)
- Michael Donnelly - son (1850–1879)
- Robert Donnelly - son (1853–1911)
- Thomas Donnelly - youngest son (1854–1880)
- Jenny (Jane) Donnelly - the last child, and the only daughter (1857–1917)
- Bridget Donnelly - Patriarch James' niece from Ireland (1858–1880)
(Those marked 1880 were killed on February 4.)
The feud
The Biddulph feud preceded the emigration of the Donnelly family from Ireland and continued for some 17 years after their deaths. However, from about 1857, the Donnelly family was inextricably bound up with the feud.The Biddulph feud had its origins in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, and had begun almost two centuries before the elder James Donnelly's birth.
It so happened through an accident of history, that Biddulph Township collected just the right concentration and distribution of Whiteboys
Whiteboys
The Whiteboys were a secret Irish agrarian organization in 18th-century Ireland which used violent tactics to defend tenant farmer land rights for subsistence farming...
, Blackfeet and Orangemen
Orange Institution
The Orange Institution is a Protestant fraternal organisation based mainly in Northern Ireland and Scotland, though it has lodges throughout the Commonwealth and United States. The Institution was founded in 1796 near the village of Loughgall in County Armagh, Ireland...
, to cause the Old Country feud to be rekindled.
Familiarity with the law
In the buildup towards the murder of the family, the Donnellys became well acquainted with local law enforcement. There are various accounts of assault, arsonArson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
, trespassing, verbal assault, attempted murder, murder of Patrick Farrell, theft
Theft
In common usage, theft is the illegal taking of another person's property without that person's permission or consent. The word is also used as an informal shorthand term for some crimes against property, such as burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, shoplifting and fraud...
, robbery
Robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....
, assaulting a police officer, as well as various altercations with many residents of the Biddulph Township. The Donnellys were not found guilty of everything of which they were accused but through their actions they made many enemies within the township. This all sounds like the Donnellys were a constant source of strife and destruction in their community, but these types of crimes were common for the county in which they lived. It was not just the men of the family who would get into altercations with the law as Johannah was noted to swear at officers quite often, specifically constable
Constable
A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions.-Etymology:...
Carroll.
The Biddulph Peace Society vigilantes
Evidence indicates that The Biddulph Peace Society or some of its individual members may have been responsible for some of the arsonArson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
, property damage
Property damage
Property damage is damage to or the destruction of public or private property, caused either by a person who is not its owner or by natural phenomena. Property damage caused by persons is generally categorized by its cause: neglect , and intentional damage...
and physical violence cases in Biddulph.
The Peace Society's role was to uphold their Code, something the Donnellys were never shy about ignoring. James Donnelly was liberal enough that at one point he even donated money to the building of an Anglican church, outraging the Biddulph Peace Society in the process.
The death of Patrick Farrell
In the spring of 1847, new Canadian immigrant James Donnelly ended up squattingSquatting
Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....
on the southeastern quarter of Lot 18, Concession 6 (also known as the Roman Line
Roman Line
The "Roman Line" was the informal name for the road formally known as Concession Six, Biddulph Township, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada.It was called the "Roman Line" for the numerous Irish Roman Catholic families that resided along it during the 19th century. It is where the Black Donnellys...
), Biddulph Township, Canada West (which would become Ontario at Canadian Confederation in 1867). He did not have the money to actually purchase the land from its absentee landlord (who had originally bought the land from the Canada Company
Canada Company
The Canada Company was a large private chartered British land development company, incorporated by an act of British parliament on July 27, 1825, to aid the colonization of Upper Canada. Canada Company assisted emigrants by providing good ships, low fares, implements and tools,and inexpensive land....
), apparently hoping no one would ever come by to claim it. It is unknown whether or not James Donnelly actually knew the piece of wilderness he had decided upon was owned by anyone. Squatting was a very common North American frontier practice and one often supported by the courts of the land in the establishment of common law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
property rights.
In 1856 or 1857, Patrick Farrell purchased land containing the quarter James Donnelly had squatted upon, and was surprised to discover Donnelly's occupation once he arrived from Ireland to take possession of his land. The matter went to court in 1857, with Farrell wishing to evict Donnelly. The disputants eventually agreed to allow Donnelly to keep and reside on 25 acres (101,171.5 m²) of the land, which was somewhat less than what Donnelly had actually cleared over the ten years he had occupied it.
Farrell, in spite of his agreement in court, was bitter about having had to give up some of the area for which he had paid, and vocally lambasted the Donnellys in public for it. During a barn raising
Barn raising
A barn raising is an event during which community men come together to assemble a barn for one or more of its households, with the support of women. The event was particularly common in 18th- and 19th-century rural North America. In the past, a barn was often the first, largest, and most costly...
bee on Saturday, June 27, 1857, James Donnelly became engaged in a drunken brawl with Farrell. Farrell suffered a blow to the head from a handspike
Handspike
A handspike is a metal bar or pipe that is used as a lever for prying or leverage, similar to a crowbar.Handspike is also an archaic term for a bar or lever, generally of wood, used in a windlass or capstan, for heaving anchor, and, in modified forms, for various other purposes....
thrown by Donnelly. It is this incident that is generally considered to have drawn the Donnelly family into the feud. Pat Farrell died on June 29, and James Donnelly then became a wanted man. (Interestingly, Farrell's young son was adopted by the Donnellys and was brought up by them until adulthood.) By the time police arrived to arrest James, however, he had seemingly disappeared and his wife Johannah refused to speak on the subject. It was later discovered he had been staying in the barn and working the fields while dressed in his wife's clothing. Almost two years later, James turned himself in to Jim Hodgins, a sympathetic Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
.
James was sentenced to be hanged on September 17, 1859. A petition for clemency started by his wife Johannah saw his sentence reduced to seven years in Kingston Penitentiary
Kingston Penitentiary
Kingston Penitentiary is a maximum security prison located in Kingston, Ontario between King Street West and Lake Ontario....
.
The Donnelly Stagecoach Line
The Donnelly Stagecoach Line is believed to have been started May 24, 1873 by William Donnelly and was a huge success. The line of stages, which ran between LondonLondon, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
, Lucan and Exeter
Exeter, Ontario
Exeter is a Canadian community in the municipality of South Huron, in the southern portion of Huron County, Ontario, located approximately 50 kilometres north of London. The community proclaims itself the "Home of the White Squirrel", owing to the presence of the unusually-coloured mammals...
, was operated by William and his brothers Michael, John, and Thomas, even rivaling the official mail stage that had been in business since 1838.
The Hawkshaw stage line soon felt the pressure of competition from the Donnellys. In October 1873, Hawkshaw sold his stage to Patrick Flanagan, a husky Irishman, who was determined to drive Donnellys out of business.
This set the stage for the feud between the Donnelly Stagecoach and the Flanagan & Crawly Stage — The Stagecoach Feud, as it came to be known. Stages were either smashed or burned, horses were savagely beaten or killed, and stables burned to the ground.
The violence that erupted as a result of the Stagecoach Feud was mostly blamed on the Donnellys and gave the family a bad reputation. From that time on, almost every crime committed was blamed on the family, but although they were charged with numerous crimes, "few convictions were secured against them".
Massacre
According to the witness testimony of Johnny O’Connor, a young farmhand who was present on the day of the murder, he was awakened between midnight and 2 a.m. by “the old man” referring to James Donnelly, the patriarch of the family, who he was sharing a bed with. James Carroll, constable for the town, was there to arrest James and Tom Donnelly, who was in handcuffs at the time. Tom began goading Carroll, questioning the warrant as well as his intelligence when a mob entered and bludgeoned Tom and James Donnelly with sticks and farm tools. Johnny, who was hiding beneath the bed he was sleeping in, was spared because the mob was oblivious to his presence. He witnessed Bridgett, James’ niece, flee for a bedroom upstairs and attempted to follow but was shut out so he quickly returned to his original hiding place. Tom attempted to escape out of the front door but was caught and beaten with sticks and a spade. Johnny crept out of his hiding spot to look at the carnage and was able to identify two of the people in the crowd as people he knew, at least from sight, from the community, Thomas Ryder and John Purtell, as well as the constable Carroll. Much of the crowd had blackened their faces to hide their identity from witnesses. They then turned their attention to Bridgett, but Johnny did not hear or see any of this murder. The mob then came downstairs and lit the house ablaze; including the bed Johnny was hiding under. Once the mob had fled, he attempted to extinguish the blaze but was unable. He passed the bodies of Johannah the wife of James and matriarch of the family as well as Tom, who was still breathing, as he fled the house to a neighbour of the Donnellys.Since the bodies were burned along with the house, it was impossible for the coroner
Coroner
A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...
to determine the cause of death beyond that of the fire, but the constable who gathered up the remains of the Donnellys reported copious amounts of blood on the ground in front of the house, which corroborates with John O’Connor’s testimony of Tom being beaten mercilessly with a spade and other farm tools after escaping the house. Had the skulls still been at the scene of the crime they could have been used by the undertaker to determine any blunt force trauma to the head, but the bodies were not recovered until the middle of the following day, February 5, leaving the corpses open to looters who wanted mementoes of the night’s events and so stole the skulls from the bodies.
William Donnelly survived and was listed as the informant on the death certificates for all five, dated April 1 and 2, 1880, with the cause of death listed as "supposed to be murdered."
The trials
There were two trials in London, Ontario, at the courthouse on Ridout Street. The first one in October 1880 ended in a hung juryHung jury
A hung jury or deadlocked jury is a jury that cannot, by the required voting threshold, agree upon a verdict after an extended period of deliberation and is unable to change its votes due to severe differences of opinion.- England and Wales :...
.
The second trial occurred in January 1881. During preparations, the prosecution, led by Aemilius Irving
Aemilius Irving
Sir Æmilius Irving was a Canadian lawyer and politician.Born in Leamington, England, the son of Jacob Æmilius Irving and Catherine Diana Homfray, Leamington was educated at Upper Canada College, became a barrister in 1849, and was created a Queen's Counsel in 1863...
and Charles Hutchinson, displayed evidence of involvement in the massacre
Massacre
A massacre is an event with a heavy death toll.Massacre may also refer to:-Entertainment:*Massacre , a DC Comics villain*Massacre , a 1932 drama film starring Richard Barthelmess*Massacre, a 1956 Western starring Dane Clark...
by the Biddulph Peace Society, up to and including the parish priest, Father John Connolly.
The most damning evidence was to come from two brothers, Jim and Bill Feeheley, Whiteboys known to have been involved in the crime. Since the massacre, they had been showing signs of remorse, and had confessed to the authorities. They had apparently been paid off by a nervous Biddulph Peace Society to leave the area forever. This they did, emigrating to Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. The prosecution successfully had them extradited
Extradition
Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...
back to Biddulph to stand trial, but then the prosecution had second thoughts.
The prosecutor, according to Orlo Miller, eventually decided that the potential damage and death toll from a successful conviction was too great. The introduction of Father John Connolly as a suspect was a dangerous proposition as much of the audience was strongly polarized along religious lines, and the matter was dropped.
The Donnelly myth today
Today the Donnellys are widely known in Canadian folklore, and the story of their murder is told throughout Canadian and American farming communities. However, despite the popularity of the Donnelly story throughout North America, the inhabitants of Lucan and Biddulph Township have tried to suppress the subject. Up until recently, even among those who were born and raised in the Lucan area, many had never heard the story of the Donnelly massacre until they were adults. Oral accounts of the murders were purportedly suppressed locally due to the number of residents who had ancestors who were directly involved in the circumstances.In recent years, several newcomers to the area have started businesses centred on the Donnelly story, creating tourism venues for visitors fascinated by the events surrounding their deaths, much to the dismay of older inhabitants. One of the more well known of these myths is that of the Midnight Lady who supposedly rides up and down the Roman Line every February 4. Another is that the ghosts of the murdered family members can be seen floating in the fields near the murder site and that horses will not ride past the former Donnelly homestead after midnight.
Ray Fazakas best illustrates the situation in his book, when he states that despite the fact that the Donnelly's have been removed from Biddulph, they have managed to remain alive thanks to Canadian folklore.
The Lucan Area Heritage & Donnelly Museum
While for many years the story of the Donnelly massacre was suppressed in the town of Lucan, in 1995 the Lucan and Area Heritage Society formed to celebrate the heritage of the Lucan area by gathering local, historical artifacts. Over the next few years, interest in the area's heritage increased within the community, and so the collection continued to grow. In 1999, the museum acquired an 1850's log cabin with a very similar floor plan to that of the Donnelly homestead, making it a dramatic setting for visitors to hear the retelling of the Donnelly story, and visualize the tragic events that occurred in the early morning hours of February 4, 1880.The Lucan Area Heritage Society, District Lion's Club, and Township of Lucan Biddulph raised over $600,000 for the construction of a new museum building after the University of Western Ontario identified the need for a new museum to spur economic growth in the community. This building reached completion in 2008, and opened to the public in 2009. The new Lucan Area Heritage & Donnelly Museum now highlights the Ray Fazakas Donnelly Collection, rotating exhibits, the "Donnelly Log Cabin", and the Hearn barn, which displays a variety of artifacts relating to agriculture in Biddulph in the past 150 years.
Now that the story of the Black Donnellys is being retold in the town where it all began, the Lucan Area Heritage & Donnelly Museum has visitors from all over the country come to learn about the area's history, and the events that occurred on February 4, 1880.
Cultural references
Stompin' Tom ConnorsStompin' Tom Connors
Charles Thomas "Stompin' Tom" Connors, OC is one of Canada's most prolific and well-known country and folk singers.He lives in Wellington County, Ontario.- Early life :...
wrote two songs in reference to the Donnelly family: "The Black Donnellys' Massacre" and "Jenny Donnelly", the latter of which was covered by Chantal Vitalis.
The Donnellys are one of the subjects of Steve Earle
Steve Earle
Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and Texas Country as well as his political views. He is also a producer, author, a political activist, and an actor, and has written and directed a play....
's song "Justice in Ontario", (the other subject being a 1979 motorcycle gang murder in Port Hope
Port Hope
Port Hope mar refer to:*Port Hope, Michigan, U.S.*Port Hope, Ontario, Canada**Port Hope Aerodrome**Port Hope Conference**Port Hope Panthers**Port Hope railway station**Port Hope Transit...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
).
In 2005, Chris Doty
Chris Doty
Chris Bourke Doty was a Canadian journalist, historian, award-winning documentary filmmaker, author and playwright, noted for his many contributions to the cultural life of his hometown of London, Ontario....
wrote The Donnelly Trials, a play he based on the court script where twelve members of the audience become the jury deciding the fate of the defendants with the script providing two separate endings for either a "Guilty" or "Not Guilty" verdict. The play was performed in the same courtroom in which the actual trial took place.
In 2007, an NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
television series entitled The Black Donnellys
The Black Donnellys
The Black Donnellys is an American television drama that debuted on NBC on February 26, 2007 and last aired on April 2, 2007. Thereafter, NBC began releasing new episodes weekly on until the series was officially canceled. The Black Donnellys was created by Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco...
followed the lives of four Irish brothers and their entrance into organized crime in Hell's Kitchen
Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton and Midtown West, is a neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City between 34th Street and 59th Street, from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River....
, New York City. The title is a homage to the infamous family, though the show is otherwise not related to the historical Donnellys.
In the 1980s, the London, Ontario
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
punk band The Black Donnellys formed, taking their name from this infamous feud.