Book excerpt: The terrible Donnelly feud, by far the most notorious and violent in the history of Canada, began in the spring of 1847 only a few hours after James Donnelly, an Irish immigrant, first arrived in the town of Lucan, Ontario. The feud lasted nearly 33 years and was marked by murders, gang wars, highway robbery, mass arson, derailed trains, mutilations, and barbarisms paralleling the Dark Ages.