By Brian Igoe
By Brian Igoe
My father, not normally given to blasphemy, would often be heard to say "Oh, Crumell!", where another might have said "Oh, Damn it". In fact, the name 'Cromwell' was sometimes spelt that way in the 17th century, which gives a clue as to how they pronounced it.
But was Cromwell as bad as he has been made out? Certainly he was a genuinely religious man, although prejudiced. And it was a violent age. Recently a school of thought has emerged among some historians saying, basically, that Cromwell was not as black as he has been painted. The position of this school is that Cromwell in Ireland was 'an Honourable Enemy' in the words of Tom Reilly, the author of a book so titled ('Cromwell, an Honourable Enemy'). The actions for which he is blamed are assumed by that author to be two massacres, and these were not unreasonable given the standards of the time, argues the school. Maybe. Let us look at the times.
The New Model Army. For a start, death, inflicted death, was commonplace in England. People were hanged for burglary and adultery as well as murder. Soldiers were hanged for all manner of crimes, from falling asleep on sentry duty to desertion. And that was in peace time. So the concept of violent death was accepted as normal.
That is the first paragraph of the chapter, which then goes on to look at the Peace of Westphalia, 'Thirty Years War', Holy Roman Empire, Hugo Grotius, 'De jure belli ac pacis' ('On the Law of War and Peace'), Ireland, Cromwell's New Model Army, sacks of Drogheda and Wexford, The Irish Catholic Confederacy, Charles I, Sir Arthur Aston, Royalists, River Boyne, Dublin, . Cromwellian cannon, Deportation to the Barbados, Sir David Sinnot, New Ross, Carlow, Kilkenny, Youghal, Galway City, Cavan, General Ireton, Henry Cromwell, the Cromwellian Settlement, Plantations, William Petty, Connacht, West Indies as 'indentured servants', 'to Hell or to Connacht', Bristol 'traders', 60,000 people were sold as slaves in the West Indies, Shannon River, Kenmare, The population of Ireland, estimated at 1,500,000, before Cromwell, was reduced by two-thirds, to 500,000, at Cromwell's death in 1658. Of these, 150,000 were Protestant. This 'Cromwellian Settlement', in my view, was Cromwell's real crime.
The Book is called 'The Story of Ireland'.
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