The Black Donnellys

Jim Donnelly, Dan's son was eager to move to the new world. In 1841 Jim met the love of this life, Johannah. They were married and the following year Johannah gave birth to their first son, James Jr. The author often uses foreshadowing throughout the novel. Kelley explains how James Jr. is "destined to be the first of the Donnellys to die." (p.16) In January 1845, three years after the birth of James Jr., the Donnellys second son William was born. William was born with a clubfoot and was said to be “the worst of the whole damn lot.” (p.17)

The following February, the Donnellys set sail for London, Canada. They lived in London for two years until Johannah began to feel “crowded in.” She was pregnant for a third time and desperately yearned to live

The boys were excellent fighters and rarely ever lost a battle. The author makes it clear that there is only ”one man who could handle any of them, feared none of them and was destined to bring destruction to most of them. “(p.40) Lucan was calm for the first two years of Jim’s imprisonment. Three years into his sentence, a barn and three of it’s horses burnt to the ground. The next night, the arsonists struck the neighbour of the first fire. Two weeks later, the third victim McMahon, lost his shed, livestock and farming equipment to a fire. It turns out that all three victims of arson were the main witnesses present for the murder of John Farrell.

Johannah has a flashback of Jim’s return to the farm after the murder. She remembers young Tom across her knees, warming his behind as Jim rode up. She recalls that Tom was a crybaby who soon grew up and learned to fight. “ A foin young man who’d slap the devil in the face. A credit to all of us.”(p.31) Thomas P. Kelley foreshadows Tom’s death, saying that he was murdered and his head was chopped off. He also explains that Jim and Johannah were murdered.

Jim’s family improves their financial status while he’s serving his seven-year sentence. Jim’s sons begin their reign of terror in chapter four. Johannah runs a very obedient household and that is what caused most of the trouble since her orders weren’t farm-related. Johannah hated peace and her orders consisted of the destruction of others farms and family.

Farrell decides to take his case to court since he lost “the battle of brawn” to Donnelly. In 1845, Farrell was given fifty of the hundred acres since he was the rightful owner of the land. Donnelly was able to keep his half since he had worked on the farm for eight years. The next two years were filled with constant quarrels between Donnelly and Farrell. In the spring of 1856, Farrell found three of his cows poisoned by Donnelly. In the fall, Farrell’s barn mysteriously went up in flames but no charges were laid since John was lacking evidence. The Donnellys shot at Farrell in the winter of 1857 but again; there wasn’t enough evidence to convict them.

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