Madam, – In relation to Brendan Landers’s An Irishman’s Diary (August 6th). The Donnelly story is told basically as it supposedly happened as per Thomas Kelly, who got hold of the story and wrote about it in about three sequels, each one gorier than the last. It was he who started the story about the headless horseman on the Roman Road and all the more sensational stories.
It has become iconic in southwestern Ontario now with summer stock theatres putting on plays etc, extolling the virtues or evils, as you wish, of the people involved. There was a rumour that Kelly had unsuccessfully tried to peddle his story to Hollywood.
Orlo Miller, of London Ontario, a United Church minister turned CBC playwright, wrote the book which tells the story in a plain unvarnished manner and assesses the blame to all the parties involved. He lays the blame on the Catholic Church in Lucan whose priest preached sermons against the Donnellys. According to Mr Miller, the problem started in Ireland where apparently the Donnelly clan had been accused of informing the British authorities about Irish nationalists. This story carried over to Canada, where it took about 30 years for the feud to develop to its final outburst.
The Donnellys were one of many Irish families who were prepared to fight and kill and eventually the suspicions melded against the Donnellys and the story was fed by the actions of the church, of which the Donnellys were members.
It is a blot on Canadian history that no one was ever punished for the crimes. There is a theory that if any of the perpetrators had talked it could have led to the opening a very unsavoury can of worms.
A number of years ago I heard that the old Donnelly tombstone in the Lucan Catholic church cemetery had been destroyed and replaced after the books came out and the Donnelly name became famous. I went to see the new tombstone about 10 years ago and found it badly chipped and marred. At the same time I saw a sign on a house on the Roman Line which was selling conducted commercial tours of the house where the murders occurred. The original house was burned to the ground the night of the killings and the one where the tours were being conducted had been built on or near the original site.
The Donnelly story is certainly an important part of the history of south western Ontario, but often the publicity that accompanies it has very little factual history. – Yours, etc,