Black Donnellys - Cultural References

Cultural References

Stompin' Tom Connors 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 the 1980s, the London, Ontario punk band The Black Donnellys formed, taking their name from this infamous feud.

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 2012, on October 26 and 27, the Waterford Heritage and Agricultural Museum hosted Moonlight & Mayhem ~ The Murder of Michael Donnelly (www.waterfordmuseum.ca). This was a unique, outdoor, after dark, theatrical production recreating the gruesome murder of Michael Donnelly which happened at the Commercial Hotel in Waterford. It was a guided walking tour presented twice nightly.

In 2013, running from April 11 until April 20, The Donnellys. Presented by the Owen Sound Little Theatre at the Roxy Theatre in Owen Sound, Ontario. It is a Drama with Music by Peter Colley and Directed by Corry Lapointe.