“Pat O'Donnell”

Description

Pat O'Donnell, "a deathly foe to traitors," sails from Ireland for Capetown on the Melrose. The informer James Kerry is also on board. Pat kills Kerry in a gunfight and is convicted of murder, though he claims self defence.

Supplemental text

Pat O'Donnell
  Partial text(s)

          *** A ***

From MacEdward Leach, Folk Ballads & Songs of the Lower Labrador Coast,
#42, pp. 122-123. "Sung by Ned Odell, Pinware, July 1960."

My name is Pat O'Donnell from the county of Donegal;
I am, you know, a deathly for to traitors one and all.
For killing of James Kerry I was tried in London town,
And on that fateful scaffold, all my life I did lay down.

(7 additional stanzas plus a final half stanza)

Notes

Zimmermann p. 62: "The Phoenix Park murders and their judicial sequels struck the popular imagination and were a gold-mine for ballad-writers: some thirty songs were issued on this subject, which was the last great cause to be so extensively commented upon in broadside ballads." - BS

Historical references

• May 6, 1882 - Chief Secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and the Under Secretary Thomas Henry Burke are murdered by a group calling themselves "The Invincible Society."
• January 1883 - twenty seven men are arrested.
• James Carey, one of the leaders in the murders, turns Queen's evidence.
• Six men are condemned to death, four are executed (Joseph Brady is hanged May 14, 1883; Daniel Curley is hanged on May 18, 1883), others are "sentenced to penal servitude," and Carey is freed and goes to South Africa.
• July 29, 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell kills Carey on board the _Melrose Castle_ sailing from Cape Town to Durban.
• Dec 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell is convicted of the murder of James Carey and executed in London (per Leach-Labrador)
• (Source for The Phoenix Park murders: primarily Zimmermann, pp. 62, 63, 281-286)

Cross references

• cf. "The Phoenix Park Tragedy" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders) and references there

Recordings

• Marie Hare, "Patrick O'Donnell" (on MRMHare01)

References

1. Leach-Labrador 42, "Pat O'Donnell" (1 text, 1 tune)
2. Manny/Wilson 86, "Patrick O'Donnell" (1 text, 1 tune)
3. OLochlainn 44A, "Pat O Donnell" (1 text, 1 tune)
4. Zimmermann 86, "Patrick O'Donnell" (1 text)
5. Morton-Maguire 54, pp. 150-151,176, "Pat O'Donnell" (1 text, 1 tune)
6. ST LLab042 (Partial)
7. Roud #2794
8. BI, LLab042