The Ballad of Alexander Campbell

​Alexander Campbell was my grandfather's uncle.  He came from Dungloe, in County Donegal, where my mother Catherine Campbell grew up, and he was hanged in Pennsylvania in 1877.  The song is about the controversy surrounding his death.
The 140th anniversary of Alexander Campbell's death was on Wednesday 21st June 2017
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​The Ballad of Alexander Campbell
 
Chorus
He lived in Pennsylvania. He came from Donegal
Before he died, he placed his hand upon the prison wall
I am leaving a sign, so that everyone will see
I am innocent of the crime, for which they are hanging me
 
Verse 1
He was born in Dungloe in 1833
At the age of 35, he headed for America
He came to Pennsylvania to the town of Tamaqua
And opened  a tavern for the locals to enjoy
 
Verse 2
Later he moved to Lansford and bought a hotel
Where he became an officer of the  Ancient Hibernians
He was framed by McParlan who was working for the mines
And hanged in the Carbon County jail for his alleged crime
 
Chorus
 
Verse 3
Alexander Campbell still speaks to us today
His quest for vindication has never gone away
He won’t rest until the day his good name is restored
A hundred and forty years is too long to be ignored
 
Chorus
Outro
And that sign is still here today
An indictment of a system that won’t say
That Alexander Campbell who paid with his life
Was a victim of injustice on his dying day
 
Yes, Alexander Campbell who paid with his life
Was a victim of injustice on his dying day

Links

Alexander Campbell's Wake

Background information provided by Anne Flaherty in blog posts in 2011
Part 1   
​Part 2 
Part 3
​Part 4
A book written by my uncle Patrick Campbell where he explores whether his granduncle was guilty or innocent.

The Funeral- Extract from "a Molly Maguire Story"
​ by Patrick Campbell

Alec Campbell’s wife, brother, and two sisters came to the lobby of the jail to accept his remains. There were no tears in their eyes now, just a bitter resignation. Sheriff Raudenbush pointed to one of the coffins and said Campbell’s body was there, and Mrs. Campbell went over and opened the lid and looked inside. She said nothing, however. James Campbell stared at the sheriff and told him that they did not want a ride on Packer’s train; that they had brought a hearse and would take the body home themselves. Mrs. Campbell, her brown eyes smoldering, told the sheriff they did not want his coffin either. Then she, and the other members of the Campbell family, took Campbell’s body out of the coffin and carried it outside to the hearse and wrapped it in a blanket they had brought.

They then headed off down the street, walking after the hearse, which was drawn by two horses. By the time they had reached Courthouse Square, a quarter of a mile down Broadway, a score of Irish people had fallen in behind the Campbells and walked with them. By the time the procession was out of Mauch Chunk, several hundred Irish were part of the procession, and as the hearse passed through Nesquohoning, three miles from Lansford, the procession had two thousand participants. At Ridge St., Lansford, the entire street was choked with people for blocks on each side of the Campbell home, and the biggest wake that Northeastern Pennsylvania had ever seen was about to begin.

Next day the Philadelphia Inquirer would call the multitudes that showed up for Alec Campbell’s wake “misguided,” and the New York Tribune would denounce the Irish for honoring the memory of a killer like Campbell. The Tribune stated that the Irish had disgraced themselves. But the wake went on night and day for three days, with thousands coming from all over to attend the wake

. On the day of the funeral, on Sunday, June 24th, the roads around Lansford were choked with carriages, and the New York Herald estimated that a total of 10,000 people, marching ten abreast, had followed the hearse from Campbell’s house in Lansford to St. Joseph’s Church in Summit Hill, one and a half miles away. The Herald stated that when the front of the procession was arriving at the church, the rear of the procession was still passing by the Campbell house. Carbon and Schuylkill counties had never seen or heard of a funeral like that, and for years afterwards the Campbell wake would always be referred to in the media as an example of the lack of respect the Irish had for the law—because it was believed that only a totally lawless people would have become involved in such a spectacle that honored the memory of an executed murderer.

In the aftermath of the executions there were no revenge killings by the Mollies, no public disturbances of any kind, and no word at all of the thousands of Molly Maguires that were supposed to have been in the hills above Mauch Chunk, ready to take a terrible revenge on those who hanged Alec Campbell. Indeed, there was total silence, which some interpreted by some to mean that the Molly Maguires had been cowed, but which others interpreted as meaning that there never had been thousands of Molly Maguires in the first place—that they were a phantom organization created by Gowen, Packer, and Parrish for their own ends.
​ For the Campbells the prelude to the executions had been a time of horror; the aftermath had been a time of terrible grief. James Campbell, who was only 20 when his brother was executed, went first to California and then to Australia. But he was back in Ireland at the turn of the century and he was still there when I was a child, a colorful old man in his 90s who talked about everything except the Molly Maguires. Both Sarah and Annie raised large families but they never really put Alec’s execution behind them, and Mrs. Alec Campbell lived until 1905 but died at a relatively early age. Her daughter, Rose, was a teenager before she knew how her father had died. 
The Jail in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, previously know as Mauch Chunk,where Alexander Campbell was hanged and which is now one of the major tourist attractions in the area 
On the 13th of March 2006, the State Senate resolved that there had been a lack of due process in the 1876/1878 trials of several members of the Molly Maguires.  The Governor was requested to acknowledge this but so far this has not happened
Recording Notes
Contact Studios, Tallaght, Dublin 24.  Engineer and Instrumentalist Gerry Horan.  Guitarist and Vocalist Tony Bardon
Backing Vocals, Danai Kelleher and Andrea Brink Siem