The Black Donnellys (TV Series)

Pilot (2007)

Keith Nobbs: Joey Ice Cream

Quotes 

• Joey Ice Cream : [narrating]  The Irish have always been victims of negative stereotyping. I mean people think we're all drunks and brawlers. And sometimes that gets you so mad all you wanna do is get drunk and punch somebody.

• [shot of Joey Ice Cream cozying up to Jenny] 

  [talking to the detective in a voiceover narration] 

  Joey Ice Cream : Now, a couple years before, Jenny, she married a schoolteacher. Now, Teach forgets to mention that he robs drug dealers to pay for his student loans. He goes into hiding, somebody stuffs him in an oil drum. Nobody had the heart to tell Jenny. I mean, even me, and we were like an item.

  Jenny Reilly : Bug off, Joey.

  Joey Ice Cream : [to Tommy, who has walked up]  Yeah, you got it. She's a great girl, isn't she?

• Joey Ice Cream : [voiceover]  Now the Donnelly brothers were always together. There was Kevin, Tommy, Jimmy, and little Sean. And Jenny Reilly was like sewn to their hip. Even back then she drove poor Tommy crazy.

• [first lines] 

  Detective at prison : So, where are the bodies?

  Joey Ice Cream : Oh, man. These guys are my friends.

  Detective at prison : Here's the deal, Joey. You tell us where the bodies are, how they got there, and you stay in solitary, nice and safe. You lie, you go to general population where more people than I can count want to see you dead.

  Detective Sunny : [throws a book down on the table harshly]  Where are the bodies?

• Jimmy Donnelly : Hey, no banging on the machines!

  Joey Ice Cream : What, it took my money!

  Jimmy Donnelly : It's supposed to take your money!

• [last lines] 

  Joey Ice Cream : And that's where he left the bodies; right where they lay. Now, what the Italians did with them, I mean I can't say.

  Detective Sunny : Those aren't the bodies we were asking about.

  Joey Ice Cream : Oh.

  [gets knocked out] 

• [voiceover narration] 

  Joey Ice Cream : I was the only one who saw him, the only one who knew that it was Tommy driving the car. And to this day, it's the one thing I never told anybody. I'm ashamed to be telling you now. Tommy never stole a car again, never did nothing, turned his whole life around. I mean, he could have made it out, only he was never going to let his brother be hurt again. And this was the day that changed Jimmy's life forever. 'Cause Jimmy went to rehab, and Tommy... Tommy became everything he never wanted. And whether he realized it or not, with Huey dead, Tommy had just taken over the neighborhood. And he was going to have to defend it.

• [voiceover narration] 

  Joey Ice Cream : See, all through history, people have accused the Black Irish of every crime that came along. They were supposed to have Gypsy blood, or Spanish or something, but my grandmother told me that before the Celts even showed up in Ireland, there was a race of dark-haired people who the Celts then proceeded to wipe out. But they could never get them all. A few of them ended up at the Firecracker Lounge.

• [voiceover narration] 

  Joey Ice Cream : Now, Jimmy knew a guy who would take the shirts for fifty cents apiece. There was only one complication. Apparently while we were in the bar, somebody stole the stolen shirts.

• [voiceover narration] 

  Joey Ice Cream : Okay, fast forward here. It's 1999, I'm flush, I'm feelin' good.

  [in thought] 

  Joey Ice Cream : Firecracker Lounge, please.

  Detective at prison : You were in juvie in '99.

  Joey Ice Cream : It's 2002, I am flush, I am feelin' good!

  Detective at prison : You get one more chance.

  Joey Ice Cream : It's 2005 and I just spent the night with a woman who wouldn't stop.

• [voiceover narration] 

  Joey Ice Cream : Sean was still the baby. Everybody loved Sean, especially women, which is why his brothers never let their girlfriends anywhere near him.

• [narrating] 

  Joey Ice Cream : Tommy could drive anything. Before he became Mother Teresa, he had a big time penchant for joyriding.

• [narrating] 

  Joey Ice Cream : Now, Kevin had always thought of himself as a gambler. He always believed he was lucky. The fact that he'd never won a bet in his life somehow never dissuaded him of this notion.

  Tommy Donnelly : Really, Kevin? $2,000? How could you lose $2,000 on jai alai? You don't even know what jai alai is, do you you? Why don't you show me? Show me how you play, Kevin.

  [narrating] 

  Joey Ice Cream : Tommy had a knack for two things: drawing and getting his brothers out of trouble. What he didn't seem to understand is that he'd never go anywhere with the first if he couldn't let go of the second.

• [voiceover, repeated line] 

  Joey Ice Cream : I always wanted brothers like that.

• Joey Ice Cream : The Irish have always been victims of negative stereotyping. I mean people think we're all drunks and brawlers. And sometimes that gets you so mad all you wanna do is get drunk and punch somebody.