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Stompin' Tom Connors

On Tragedy Trail

Black Donnelly's Massacre

[UPLOAD COVER]

Lyrics

(Chorus)

The Black Donnelly’s Ride, their killers by their side
Down the Roman Line till the end of time

Back in eighteen hundred and some
To Lucan Ontario a man did come
A man who pushed his weight around
And his wife Johanna could slap the devil down

The seven sons who fought as well
They opened up wide the gates of hell
And they fired up the land for miles around
The Black Donnelly’s from Lucan town

Well every glance that a Donnelly gave
Came the sound of shovels digging your grave
And many a club there come crashing down
Upon the heads of the men around Lucan town

Down the old Roman Line the further you went
The folks got tougher and meaner bent
And then the Black Donnelly’s for their abode
They lived down at the end of the road

(Chorus)

Now old Jim Donnelly killed a man one day
And everybody thought that old Jim had run away
But Jim was home and quite concealed
In Johanna’s old dress where he still plowed the field

But he served his time the story goes
He then came back again to cheat his foes
The seven sons he robbed and burned
Until the whole town knew that old Jim had returned

And they started up a coach line from Lucan town
With daily trips on into London town
And to destroy their competitors route
They cut the tongues of all his horses out

And eighteen men with their clubs and their arms
They marched on over to the Donnelly barn
But a Donnelly boy could fight like ten

And sure they put a lickin’ to those eighteen men

(Chorus)

They poisoned cattle now by the score
They burned down buildings more and more
They horse whipped men to make them say
That they wouldn’t appear in court next day

And every Sheriff the town could find
They met the Black Donnelly’s and then resigned
For thirty three years with their clubs in hand
The Black Donnelly’s ruled the land

And there came one man into Lucan town
He was hired to cut all the Donnelly’s down
A fearless man of a mighty frame
And James Carroll was that man’s name

They made him the Sheriff and they followed through
And formed his secret vigilante crew
At the old swamp schoolhouse in winter time
They planned their fatal night of crime

(Chorus)

In eighteen eighty on that February night
As old Granny had foretold it was a terrible sight
Old Jim and Johanna and Tom their son
And Bridget were slaughtered they axed every one

And the thirty drunks left with the house all aflame
Hell-bent for more Black Donnelly game
And from out the fire and into the cold
Ran that young Connor boy just eleven years old

And the gunshots rang and they ripped into John
And another Black Donnelly brother was gone
And so the Grim Reaper had collected his pay
And the other three Donnelly’s then wandered away

Now the Vigilantes they got away free from the law
But they all died mysteriously
So one word of caution to all who would hate
At the end of your road the Black Donnelly’s wait

(Chorus)

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Year: 1975
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Stompin' Tom Connors

On Tragedy Trail

Black Donnelly's Massacre

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Collective

Members Who Like Stompin' Tom Connors - On Tragedy Trail