1 00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:06,760 What about sanctimonious Cromwell and his Ironsides that 2 00:00:06,760 --> 00:00:09,720 put the women and children of Drahada to the sword with the 3 00:00:09,720 --> 00:00:14,720 Bible text God is Love pasted around the mouth of his Canon? 4 00:00:15,880 --> 00:00:28,640 James Joyce, Ulysses, 1922 Long ago there lived a terrible bad 5 00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:34,560 man named Oliver Cromwell, and about the middle of the 16th 6 00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:37,880 century he came to Ireland with a band of soldiers and 7 00:00:37,880 --> 00:00:41,960 adventurers. They committed great slaughter 8 00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:46,480 and other file deeds. They also drove the farmers and 9 00:00:46,480 --> 00:00:50,360 peasants out of their homes to the poor lands of Conuct or a 10 00:00:50,360 --> 00:00:53,360 well known place with a climate considerably hotter. 11 00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:58,480 This man Cromwell placed his soldiers and adventurers in 12 00:00:58,480 --> 00:01:02,120 large tracts of the best lands from where the Irish farmers 13 00:01:02,120 --> 00:01:07,160 were driven. These men were called landlords. 14 00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:11,840 These landlords, after some time, divided some of their 15 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:16,480 estates into small farms and placed tenants on them, from 16 00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:21,960 whom they got huge rents. Collector Kathleen Gibney 17 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:27,920 address Bohemeen County Mead Informant Tommy Gibney 18 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:42,120 Oliver Cromwell. His name is celebrated as an 19 00:01:42,120 --> 00:01:44,640 important figure of parliamentary democracy in the 20 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:47,680 United Kingdom. Cromwell dispatched a king. 21 00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:52,320 It was the first republican and an advocate for democracy in 22 00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:54,160 Ireland. However, his lasting effect is 23 00:01:54,160 --> 00:01:57,960 one of a genocidal tyrant. His consideration of the Irish 24 00:01:57,960 --> 00:02:01,440 people as inhuman was self professed, and the inhumanity 25 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:04,440 for which he inflicted arguably places him in a position of 26 00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:07,760 contempt higher than any royal. An Irish folklore. 27 00:02:07,880 --> 00:02:09,720 This contempt is plain to be seen. 28 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:13,000 Cromwell is written as a personal friend or assistant of 29 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:17,880 Satan, if not the devil Incarnate, on Khuga, A Kriyagna 30 00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:20,880 era, the war that finished Ireland. 31 00:02:21,720 --> 00:02:24,680 This is what a conquest of the country during the War of the 32 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:28,960 Three Kingdoms was dubbed, an ethnic cleansing headed by one 33 00:02:28,960 --> 00:02:31,160 man. But this episode's purpose is 34 00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:34,120 not to daub Cromwell with fruitless emotional hatred. 35 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:36,920 That'll get us nowhere. Instead, the aim is to look at 36 00:02:36,920 --> 00:02:40,840 the facts, the what, where, and why of Cromwell's campaign in 37 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:45,400 quotation marks of Ireland between 1949 and 1950. 38 00:02:45,920 --> 00:02:49,400 The short horror of only nine months left the lasting effect 39 00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:53,080 which saw the displacement of many native Irish, at best in 40 00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:56,560 the conduct or farther afield to Barbados in the form of 41 00:02:56,560 --> 00:03:00,040 indentured servants. But these people were perhaps 42 00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:02,480 lucky. Many died. 43 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:05,800 But while most of us know Cromwell to be, as it pertains 44 00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:09,320 to our history, an awful bad bastard altogether, many of us 45 00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:12,520 don't know exactly the why. And it is our duty for us to 46 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:15,040 understand our history, particularly now. 47 00:03:15,040 --> 00:03:19,000 In this present, we are learning in real time that truth is the 48 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,560 first casualty of war, But it is the assault on truth and on 49 00:03:22,560 --> 00:03:25,880 reality which allows oppressors to bend the world to their whim 50 00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:28,520 in hindsight or even in present tense. 51 00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:32,800 This episode does not wish to dwell on the past, but to 52 00:03:32,800 --> 00:03:35,520 confirm what we know and consider it in terms of our 53 00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:38,000 present. Cromwell's campaign on Ireland 54 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:41,720 was unjust, cruel and a de facto attempt at genocide, 55 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:45,520 displacement and settler colonialism based purely on 56 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:49,000 religion and ethnicity. Still, it is somehow debated 57 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:51,560 whether or not Britain carried out an ethnic cleansing in 58 00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:55,280 Ireland, as if the truth of the situation was literally scorched 59 00:03:55,280 --> 00:03:56,720 from the earth with his coming here. 60 00:03:57,080 --> 00:03:59,520 And whilst many Irish accounts from the time are rightly 61 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:02,960 subject to scrutiny on the grounds of hyperbole, emotion, 62 00:04:03,080 --> 00:04:06,400 religious spin or a lack of concrete evidence, this does not 63 00:04:06,400 --> 00:04:10,200 take away from the facts. Faced with the prospect of an 64 00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:13,240 Irish alliance with Charles the 2nd and hot on the memory of the 65 00:04:13,240 --> 00:04:16,440 Ulster Rebellion, which saw the murder of Protestant settlers in 66 00:04:16,440 --> 00:04:19,920 Ireland in an effort to reclaim stolen land, Cromwell carried 67 00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:23,000 out a series of massacres to subdue the Irish. 68 00:04:23,920 --> 00:04:27,120 Once he returned to England, the English Commissioner, General 69 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:30,440 Henry Irritant, Cromwell's son-in-law, adopted A deliberate 70 00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:35,280 policy of crop burning and starvation in the country in 71 00:04:35,280 --> 00:04:37,960 1641. When all was said and done, 72 00:04:38,120 --> 00:04:41,320 total excess debts for the entire period was estimated by 73 00:04:41,320 --> 00:04:45,200 Sir William Petty, the 17th century economist, to be 600,000 74 00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:49,240 out of a total Irish population of 1,400,000 people. 75 00:04:50,440 --> 00:04:55,480 That's around 42% of the populace. 42% were murdered. 76 00:04:56,200 --> 00:04:58,880 A conscious ethnic cleansing occurred in Ireland. 77 00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:02,400 It was validated by religion and by the superpower of the time, 78 00:05:02,840 --> 00:05:06,560 Britain. This is not a fact to be debated 79 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:10,480 as a matter of opinion. Critics of this fact often point 80 00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:13,280 to arbitrary laws in place at the time, which point to the 81 00:05:13,280 --> 00:05:18,000 inhumanity as fair but fair only under the supposition of a 82 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:21,920 people as near subhuman. Once again, this is an episode 83 00:05:21,920 --> 00:05:25,560 on the past, but I do not need to express why it is important 84 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:29,120 in the present. The evidence we are using is not 85 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:31,920 from nationalistic pundits. From that time or now. 86 00:05:32,360 --> 00:05:34,720 The admission of ethnic cleansing comes straight from 87 00:05:34,720 --> 00:05:38,440 the horse's mouth, Cromwell's own words taken from his own 88 00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:41,200 diary entries during the time of the bloody affair. 89 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:45,080 Aside from this, our key resource which will underpin the 90 00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:48,600 episode will be the research of John Morrow, the professor of 91 00:05:48,600 --> 00:05:52,000 British and Irish history at Cambridge and the former head of 92 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:56,120 the Cromwell Society in the UK. Even he has to admit there's a 93 00:05:56,120 --> 00:05:59,640 whiff, A genocide and more than some physical words on Cromwell 94 00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:04,000 and the Iron Sides. The Irish can never forget it 95 00:06:04,280 --> 00:06:06,120 and the English can never remember it. 96 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:09,720 This is what writer and philosopher GK Chesterton had to 97 00:06:09,720 --> 00:06:13,840 say on Cromwell's conquest between 1649 and 1650. 98 00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:17,960 And all of this is not to discount that Cromwell was 99 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:20,640 important to parliamentary politics in the UK. 100 00:06:21,480 --> 00:06:23,440 Just because someone was important and righteous in one 101 00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:25,640 regard does not mean he wasn't a tyrant. 102 00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:28,640 In other regards, virtues don't cancel out sins. 103 00:06:29,040 --> 00:06:31,840 Just as someone's face is clean, it doesn't mean that they're 104 00:06:31,840 --> 00:06:35,520 ours isn't. And just for the crack as well, 105 00:06:35,520 --> 00:06:38,440 to keep the show functioning as it usually does, going to 106 00:06:38,440 --> 00:06:41,160 sprinkle in some Duke is folk stories. 107 00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:43,480 This is a serious topic, but we're still trying to have some 108 00:06:43,480 --> 00:06:45,800 fun with it. These folk stories are funny and 109 00:06:45,800 --> 00:06:48,760 not to be taken as anything close to fact, and maybe just to 110 00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:52,320 give you the vibe of what Cromwell is perceived as on a 111 00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:54,360 colloquial level here in Ireland. 112 00:06:54,960 --> 00:06:57,560 So if I start talking about collectors and informants, 113 00:06:58,480 --> 00:07:00,920 that's likely a National Folklore Collection story. 114 00:07:01,080 --> 00:07:02,840 I'm pretty sure you'll know by the vibe of them. 115 00:07:02,920 --> 00:07:05,240 I'll just give you a taste or one right now. 116 00:07:10,520 --> 00:07:19,200 Cromwell and a Crow. There is an old church not far 117 00:07:19,200 --> 00:07:22,680 from this school and it is supposed that Cromwell plundered 118 00:07:22,680 --> 00:07:25,440 it. One day Cromwell came to the 119 00:07:25,440 --> 00:07:28,840 church and he left his soldiers outside and went into the church 120 00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:32,080 himself. He was a long time in the church 121 00:07:32,360 --> 00:07:34,920 and the soldiers were wondering what was keeping him. 122 00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:39,080 A few of his soldiers crept to the door and looked in, and they 123 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:44,680 saw Cromwell talking to a crow. Cromwell was very angry because 124 00:07:44,680 --> 00:07:48,480 the soldiers saw him and he went outside and took his scarf from 125 00:07:48,480 --> 00:07:52,200 his neck and threw it around the necks of the soldiers and hanged 126 00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:56,400 them across his shoulder. Collector Francis Faye address 127 00:07:56,560 --> 00:08:01,640 Clonmore County Loud. So Cromwell, his characteristic 128 00:08:01,640 --> 00:08:05,400 never went anywhere without his scarf, as you know, loved 129 00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:08,760 Autumn, and he must have been gigantic. 130 00:08:08,760 --> 00:08:10,720 He hung a few soldiers across his neck. 131 00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:14,360 That's the sort of flavor You'll not you'll know the difference. 132 00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:17,040 You'll know by you'll know by the tone of my voice and the cut 133 00:08:17,040 --> 00:08:20,440 of my jib, whether I'm being very, very serious or not. 134 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:29,720 Is this a serious thing? Cromwell's early life I was by 135 00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:33,840 birth a gentleman living neither in considerable height nor yet 136 00:08:33,960 --> 00:08:37,880 in obscurity. Is that Cromwell's voice? 137 00:08:38,039 --> 00:08:41,679 I know he's from the north of Illegal and he's from the north. 138 00:08:41,720 --> 00:08:44,560 No, I'm joking. This is about Cromwell's time in 139 00:08:44,560 --> 00:08:46,960 Ireland, of course, but it's probably important to sum up the 140 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:49,760 guy and what led him here. Born to a political family, 141 00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:53,040 Cromwell's father was of modest means but still a member of the 142 00:08:53,040 --> 00:08:55,640 landed Gentry. The family initially acquired 143 00:08:55,640 --> 00:08:58,520 great wealth as occasional beneficiaries due to the 144 00:08:58,520 --> 00:09:01,640 disillusion of the monasteries, and this was to dissolve of 145 00:09:01,640 --> 00:09:04,280 Catholic institutions by Henry the Eighth. 146 00:09:04,760 --> 00:09:07,240 Cromwell would join parliament representing the area of 147 00:09:07,240 --> 00:09:11,120 Huntingdon, but became involved in disputes locally, sold most 148 00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:14,560 of his properties and moved to a farmstead nearby which was a 149 00:09:14,560 --> 00:09:17,640 significant step down in society for the Cromwells. 150 00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:22,200 In 1631 it was said that Cromwell was treated seemingly 151 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:25,920 for depression, perhaps as a result of this dispute, and 152 00:09:25,920 --> 00:09:28,400 religion seemed to be his saving grace. 153 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:31,400 In a letter to his cousin, he gives an account of a spiritual 154 00:09:31,400 --> 00:09:34,760 awakening, describing himself as being the chief of sinners and 155 00:09:34,760 --> 00:09:37,360 how he was now among the congregation of the first born. 156 00:09:37,880 --> 00:09:41,000 He expressed belief that he was saved from his previous sins by 157 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:43,920 God's mercy, that the Reformation hadn't gone far 158 00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:47,600 enough and that much of England was still living in sin, and 159 00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:50,960 that Catholic beliefs and practices must be fully removed 160 00:09:50,960 --> 00:09:54,000 from the church. And now not to get it twisted. 161 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:57,640 Early on in this this episode, I have no problems with 162 00:09:57,640 --> 00:10:01,840 Protestantism and actually think the Reformation comes from a 163 00:10:01,840 --> 00:10:04,720 good place. Now it's mainly be planting as 164 00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:08,480 in Unfortunately as with all things religion kind of gets 165 00:10:08,480 --> 00:10:13,760 conflated into it was Protestant planters that were put into 166 00:10:13,760 --> 00:10:17,520 Ireland. Protestant English planters and 167 00:10:17,760 --> 00:10:21,200 the the nodal religious thing don't have a problem with don't 168 00:10:21,200 --> 00:10:23,040 particularly love Catholicism either. 169 00:10:23,520 --> 00:10:27,520 It's when either or there's a start bullying either way still 170 00:10:27,520 --> 00:10:29,960 problems with religions. I mean we want to give everyone 171 00:10:30,360 --> 00:10:34,680 freedom of religious choice but but oftentimes it seems that 172 00:10:34,680 --> 00:10:38,240 instead of it's it's either like one one is being the oppressor 173 00:10:38,240 --> 00:10:39,760 or the other one's being the oppressor. 174 00:10:41,280 --> 00:10:45,400 Which isn't very godly in my in my understanding and estimation 175 00:10:45,400 --> 00:10:54,440 of it. It's perhaps of note, as I was 176 00:10:54,440 --> 00:10:57,360 saying, that John Merrill was once the head of the Cromwell 177 00:10:57,360 --> 00:11:00,400 society in the UK, and yet he himself cannot permit the 178 00:11:00,400 --> 00:11:03,080 ignorance surrounding the atrocities Cromwell spearheaded. 179 00:11:03,840 --> 00:11:07,240 He says, and I quote the depth of hatred that still exists in 180 00:11:07,240 --> 00:11:10,680 Ireland is matched only by unawareness in non Catholic 181 00:11:10,680 --> 00:11:13,520 English circles of what Cromwell did in Ireland. 182 00:11:15,800 --> 00:11:18,360 So the demands of English viceroys led to violent 183 00:11:18,360 --> 00:11:19,840 rebellion. Rebellion led to the 184 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:23,080 confiscation of rebel lands and the introduction of the English, 185 00:11:23,080 --> 00:11:25,840 Scottish and planters, IE settlers. 186 00:11:26,360 --> 00:11:29,720 The early Stewart period saw a significant drop in violence, 187 00:11:29,720 --> 00:11:33,000 but not of injustice or resentment from the native Gale. 188 00:11:33,680 --> 00:11:37,480 In the 1630s Charles the First Lord Deputy, the Lord Stratford 189 00:11:37,600 --> 00:11:40,400 was sent to Ireland to make it less of a financial drain on 190 00:11:40,400 --> 00:11:42,520 England and to sweeten the Irish up. 191 00:11:42,760 --> 00:11:45,360 To make things just a bit less unfair, he granted more 192 00:11:45,360 --> 00:11:47,320 religious freedom to the Catholics and raised their 193 00:11:47,320 --> 00:11:49,680 revenues by making the English settlers return. 194 00:11:49,680 --> 00:11:53,080 Some of their I'll gotten gains as the tide in Britain turned 195 00:11:53,080 --> 00:11:55,640 against monarchy. Strafford was executed by the 196 00:11:55,640 --> 00:11:58,720 Parliament, leaving room for Protestant colonists to take 197 00:11:58,720 --> 00:12:01,200 their revenge. The Catholics face renewed 198 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:03,640 persecution. With English government tied up 199 00:12:03,640 --> 00:12:06,840 in the autumn of 1641. The Protestants seized the 200 00:12:06,840 --> 00:12:08,800 opportunity for a preemptive strike. 201 00:12:10,080 --> 00:12:12,840 But ulsters dispossessed Catholics rose in rebellion, 202 00:12:12,960 --> 00:12:16,440 killing 3000 Protestants, with nearly as many fleeing to 203 00:12:16,440 --> 00:12:19,280 England. Their horror stories, dreadful 204 00:12:19,280 --> 00:12:22,400 enough, were grotesquely exaggerated by the English press 205 00:12:22,520 --> 00:12:25,600 and an Anglo Scottish army was dispatched to protect remaining 206 00:12:25,600 --> 00:12:27,640 British Protestant planter communities. 207 00:12:27,840 --> 00:12:31,560 To pay for this army Parliament passed an act guaranteeing 1/5 208 00:12:31,560 --> 00:12:35,080 of the landmass of Ireland to those who lent £2,000,000. 209 00:12:35,360 --> 00:12:39,600 Just over 1000 so-called adventurers raised the full sum. 210 00:12:40,880 --> 00:12:44,560 Oliver Cromwell was to make good on these claims. 211 00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:49,280 So Cromwell was heading over to Ireland with the understanding 212 00:12:49,600 --> 00:12:53,080 that 1/5 of Ireland as a landmass was to be given to to 213 00:12:53,080 --> 00:13:04,120 these investors landlords. Most of the land in County 214 00:13:04,120 --> 00:13:07,280 Wexford was taken by Cromwell and given to some of his 215 00:13:07,280 --> 00:13:10,560 soldiers and followers. Some of these held on to the 216 00:13:10,560 --> 00:13:13,320 land they got and married and it fell to their children. 217 00:13:13,920 --> 00:13:16,600 Others sold it. Later on it is told of 218 00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:19,680 Castleboro that a soldier who had got the deeds of the farm, 219 00:13:19,840 --> 00:13:23,400 getting tired from walking, met a man named Cairo, and he gave 220 00:13:23,400 --> 00:13:26,200 him the deeds and rights to Castleboro for a horse and some 221 00:13:26,200 --> 00:13:28,560 money to take him back to Cromwell's army. 222 00:13:29,040 --> 00:13:32,040 The Rasgarland estate was given to the Lee family by Cromwell, 223 00:13:32,200 --> 00:13:35,240 who told Lee someplace near Wellington Bridge that he would 224 00:13:35,240 --> 00:13:38,200 give him the land at each side of the road as far as his horse 225 00:13:38,200 --> 00:13:40,920 would carry him. The horse, without stopping, 226 00:13:40,960 --> 00:13:45,360 dropped dead near Balon Ebola and so Lee became landlord all 227 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:49,000 over that land. Some of the former Lee's evicted 228 00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:51,680 all the tenants around his own home and levelled out the 229 00:13:51,680 --> 00:13:55,560 ditches and houses until he had a farm of 2000 acres. 230 00:13:56,560 --> 00:13:59,080 The people who were evicted went to other countries. 231 00:13:59,760 --> 00:14:01,760 Very few planters settled around here. 232 00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:07,120 Mr. Lee was a bad landlord and was known as Leveller Lee. 233 00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:11,000 It is not the custom to divide farms amongst families in the 234 00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:13,760 County. Wexford, the landlord, used to 235 00:14:13,760 --> 00:14:16,760 make his tenants vote for whoever he wished under threat 236 00:14:16,760 --> 00:14:20,360 of eviction. If they refused, he sent his man 237 00:14:20,440 --> 00:14:23,240 and sowed grass seed in their land and then evicted them. 238 00:14:24,600 --> 00:14:28,200 Some people paid tides. Tenants near Protestant churches 239 00:14:28,240 --> 00:14:31,200 had to pay some money for the upkeep of the clergy. 240 00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:34,520 There were no battles fought around here, but people resented 241 00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:37,160 paying tides and only paid under compulsion. 242 00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:41,640 The landlord of this district was Mr. Lee of Rose Garland. 243 00:14:42,120 --> 00:14:44,880 The family had been resident in the district since the time of 244 00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:47,600 Cromwell. Mr. Lee was well known for his 245 00:14:47,600 --> 00:14:51,080 terrible temper, for the cruelty he inflicted onto his tenants. 246 00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:55,640 Five of Lee's tenants in Bally Lannon could not pay the rent on 247 00:14:55,640 --> 00:14:57,800 time and they were thrown out of their houses. 248 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:01,760 One time he evicted all the small farmers who lived near his 249 00:15:01,760 --> 00:15:05,080 house for no reason and he levelled the houses and made the 250 00:15:05,080 --> 00:15:09,160 farms into a huge field. This field has not been divided 251 00:15:09,160 --> 00:15:13,160 since, and it can still be seen. The children and grandchildren 252 00:15:13,160 --> 00:15:16,560 of the evicted people are now back in a different part of the 253 00:15:16,560 --> 00:15:19,800 land. No one could shoot game on Lee's 254 00:15:19,800 --> 00:15:23,600 land, for he held game rights and if anyone did so, they would 255 00:15:23,600 --> 00:15:26,680 be prosecuted. Tithes were collected in this 256 00:15:26,680 --> 00:15:29,480 district long ago for the upkeep of the landlord. 257 00:15:30,360 --> 00:15:33,480 Bayless usually collected the tithes, and for this people 258 00:15:33,480 --> 00:15:36,720 resented their collection, and fights often took place on their 259 00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:39,400 account. The people paid the tithes in 260 00:15:39,400 --> 00:15:42,160 money, but if they had not enough money, their goods were 261 00:15:42,160 --> 00:15:45,600 seized. One day, as Lee was walking out 262 00:15:45,600 --> 00:15:48,880 near his farmland, which is a few miles away from his home, he 263 00:15:48,880 --> 00:15:51,440 saw some children playing ball on the farmland wall. 264 00:15:52,200 --> 00:15:55,320 He was very angry at this, and he dealt the nearest child to 265 00:15:55,320 --> 00:15:57,720 him a blow with his whip on their leg. 266 00:15:58,520 --> 00:16:01,400 The child's legs swelled up until it was nearly as big as 267 00:16:01,400 --> 00:16:05,840 his body and he could not walk. The other children ran home in 268 00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:09,520 terror. Mr. Lee relented almost as quick 269 00:16:09,520 --> 00:16:12,720 as his anger had flared out, and he got a doctor later to cure 270 00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:16,680 the child. Lee was called Cromwell by his 271 00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:22,520 tenants and his son was called Young Cromwell Location, 272 00:16:22,560 --> 00:16:25,800 Hilltown, County Wexford, that was collected in the class of 273 00:16:25,800 --> 00:16:40,800 teacher Simon Murphy, the Ulster Rebellion satellite, 274 00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:44,400 the fuel which had piled up in an occupied Ireland in October 275 00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:48,360 1641. Ireland would now become chiefly 276 00:16:48,360 --> 00:16:51,640 the theatre of the War of the Three Kingdoms between Ireland, 277 00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:54,800 England and Scotland. For the next seven years, 278 00:16:55,800 --> 00:16:58,800 warfare throughout Ireland was sporadic but vicious. 279 00:16:59,080 --> 00:17:01,960 The diary of an anonymous English soldier in the winter of 280 00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:07,520 1641 to 1642 includes sickening detail of how he and his fellows 281 00:17:07,520 --> 00:17:10,720 shot or hanged civilians and losers and burned the villages 282 00:17:10,720 --> 00:17:14,079 that they passed through. One British historian says the 283 00:17:14,079 --> 00:17:18,000 diary displayed the casual cruelty of an S S officer on the 284 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:22,839 Russian front in 1942. This violence can be matched by 285 00:17:22,839 --> 00:17:26,040 confessed activities of the same kind on the other side of the 286 00:17:26,040 --> 00:17:29,240 native Irish, although Merrill admits the worst atrocities were 287 00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:31,280 perpetrated by the English on the Irish. 288 00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:34,720 And let us not forget, Ireland was being colonized by the time 289 00:17:34,720 --> 00:17:37,880 of Charles the First execution in January 1649. 290 00:17:38,120 --> 00:17:41,680 Ireland was more devastated, exhausted and bitterly divided 291 00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:45,080 even than England. With Britain now not under the 292 00:17:45,080 --> 00:17:48,080 control of a monarchy, the Royalists had fled to Ireland 293 00:17:48,160 --> 00:17:50,960 and were in an uneasy alliance with the Catholic Confederate 294 00:17:50,960 --> 00:17:52,960 Group, a group they were once fighting. 295 00:17:53,720 --> 00:17:55,680 An army loyal to the Long Parliament and Cromwell 296 00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:58,680 controlled the Dublin area. Eh, But more than 80% of Ireland 297 00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:00,720 was in the hands of those hostile to this English 298 00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:04,040 revolution, whether it be the native Irish or Protestant 299 00:18:04,040 --> 00:18:06,200 royalists that just wanted to see the return of the Crown. 300 00:18:06,520 --> 00:18:10,000 It really was a motley crew and the enemy of my enemy and all 301 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:10,800 that. Jazz. 302 00:18:10,840 --> 00:18:13,640 Cromwell's Expeditionary force was intended to reverse this 303 00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:16,600 situation by incorporating Ireland into the English 304 00:18:16,600 --> 00:18:19,720 Commonwealth, placing it firmly under the direct rule from 305 00:18:19,720 --> 00:18:21,680 England. And it was also to carve up 306 00:18:21,680 --> 00:18:24,520 enough land to pay up the cost of the conquest and reward 307 00:18:24,520 --> 00:18:27,640 English speculators and D mobbed soldiers and all those people 308 00:18:27,640 --> 00:18:33,120 that have paid up to £2,000,000 Cromwell's bell. 309 00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:37,520 It is supposed that Cromwell blew the bell out of a church 310 00:18:37,520 --> 00:18:41,280 near here, and the bell rang from the church through the air 311 00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:45,920 until it fell in a field nearby. There is a little wood there 312 00:18:45,920 --> 00:18:49,000 now, and if you stand in the place where the bell sank in the 313 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:51,880 ground, it will open up and swallow you. 314 00:18:53,880 --> 00:18:56,760 Every student of Irish history knows well what happened at 315 00:18:56,760 --> 00:19:00,720 Drahada, but many of us may not know that Cromwell arrived at 316 00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:05,200 Clonmore, Thar Parish, County, loud on the day previous to the 317 00:19:05,200 --> 00:19:08,680 attack and leveled a beautiful church which stood near the 318 00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:11,160 crossroads. Failing to destroy the church 319 00:19:11,160 --> 00:19:14,840 bell, Cromwell ordered his men to have it buried, and tradition 320 00:19:14,840 --> 00:19:17,680 states that having buried it in the little plantation on the 321 00:19:17,680 --> 00:19:21,120 lands of Peter McGuire of desire, it still lies buried 322 00:19:21,120 --> 00:19:24,400 there and chimes out the commencement of each century. 323 00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:27,800 Cromwell made Clonmore his camping ground on that day and 324 00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:30,520 slept at the very spot where stands dwelling House of the 325 00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:34,320 late John Dolan that came from collector Donald Butterley. 326 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:38,800 So Cromwell was only actually in Ireland from the 15th of August 327 00:19:38,800 --> 00:19:43,840 1649 to the 26th of May 1650, and in that short time he 328 00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:46,560 accomplished a more complete control of Ireland that had been 329 00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:48,600 achieved under any English monarch. 330 00:19:49,240 --> 00:19:52,160 This led to the most rootless process of ethnic cleansing that 331 00:19:52,160 --> 00:19:55,440 had ever been seen in Western European history, with the 332 00:19:55,440 --> 00:19:58,000 arguable exception of the Norman Conquest. 333 00:19:58,520 --> 00:20:02,160 In the next five years, perhaps 3/4 of the land held by a 334 00:20:02,160 --> 00:20:06,360 predominantly Catholic native Irish people was confiscated, 335 00:20:06,720 --> 00:20:09,680 redistributed and given to Protestant Englishmen. 336 00:20:10,920 --> 00:20:13,640 At a stroke, the proportion of the land of Ireland held by the 337 00:20:13,640 --> 00:20:20,400 former fell from 3/5 to 1/6. Cromwell spent his time securing 338 00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:23,760 control of the east of Ireland from Drahada, 30 miles north of 339 00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:28,320 Dublin, to Cork in the South. When he left, only four major 340 00:20:28,320 --> 00:20:33,000 Irish towns remain to be taken Waterford, Limerick, Athlone and 341 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:36,000 Galway. His successors, first his 342 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:39,480 son-in-law Henry Irezon, and then Charles Fleetwood, were 343 00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:47,120 left with a messy, bloody mopping up Operation Scarlet St. 344 00:20:48,600 --> 00:20:52,440 Long ago, when Cromwell came to Drahada, the inhabitants ran up. 345 00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:55,840 Peter St. Cromwell's men, however, 346 00:20:55,920 --> 00:20:58,120 overtook them and slew many of them. 347 00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:02,000 Many of them sought refuge in the church on the top of the 348 00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:05,440 hill, St. Peter's Church, but in vain 349 00:21:06,680 --> 00:21:10,000 Cromwell's men followed them and killed every man, woman and 350 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:12,440 child. He then marched onto Scarlet 351 00:21:12,440 --> 00:21:16,040 Street, where he slew so many that the street ran red with 352 00:21:16,040 --> 00:21:19,280 blood. From that day to this the people 353 00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:24,680 call this street Scarlet St. location Drahada, Candy Loud 354 00:21:25,120 --> 00:21:32,320 Teacher, Sister Magdalene. At the heart of Cromwell's 355 00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:35,000 conquest was his storming of Drahada and Wexford. 356 00:21:35,240 --> 00:21:38,840 They came to represent a grisly legend, a scar on the collective 357 00:21:38,840 --> 00:21:40,120 consciousness. In Ireland. 358 00:21:40,680 --> 00:21:43,880 In Drahada, more than 3000 were killed in Wexford. 359 00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:48,120 Not less than 2000, they died from artillery bombardment, from 360 00:21:48,120 --> 00:21:51,840 gunshots, from sword or dagger Truss, or purely by bludgeon 361 00:21:52,120 --> 00:21:56,280 hitting them across the head. Most brutally and inhumanely was 362 00:21:56,280 --> 00:21:59,960 the killing of Sir Arthur Aston, commander of the Drahade 363 00:21:59,960 --> 00:22:02,600 Garrison. Aston was clubbed to death with 364 00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:06,440 his own wooden leg. Many, perhaps most, were killed 365 00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:10,160 in the hot blood of battle, but the others were killed in cold 366 00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:14,320 blood after they had surrendered or after they'd been captured. 367 00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:22,560 Milk Cromwell landed in Wexford at Maudlin Town, which was at 368 00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:24,200 the time the entrance to Wexford. 369 00:22:25,120 --> 00:22:28,480 There was a man named Stafford who sold the town to Cromwell. 370 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:32,400 Cromwell knocked down several churches in Wexford. 371 00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:34,920 He knocked down Saint Patrick's Church and Saint Patrick's 372 00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:36,960 Square. He knocked down another at 373 00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:39,880 Celtskar Abbey. He knocked down others at Kiln, 374 00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:42,760 McRae and Kildavan. Where the blood of the priests 375 00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:45,960 he killed is still to be seen under the Arch of the Kildavan 376 00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:48,400 Church. He killed a lot of people in the 377 00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:50,920 Wexford Marketplace, namely the Bullring. 378 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:54,960 His soldiers got young Catholic children and put them up on 379 00:22:54,960 --> 00:22:58,040 their bayonets. One of the children smiled down 380 00:22:58,040 --> 00:23:00,880 at Cromwell and he told his soldiers to stop quickly. 381 00:23:02,360 --> 00:23:05,040 Another day, a young girl was coming through the fields at the 382 00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:07,840 back of Cromwell's Fort carrying a vessel of milk. 383 00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:11,560 One of Cromwell's soldiers stopped her and drank the milk. 384 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:16,440 She went home crying, and on our way home she met none other than 385 00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:19,800 Oliver Cromwell, who asked her what was the cause of her crying 386 00:23:19,800 --> 00:23:23,440 and she told him. He then asked her could she 387 00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:27,280 identify that soldier and she said that she could. 388 00:23:28,200 --> 00:23:31,240 Cromwell got all his soldiers out in a line in front of the 389 00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:33,600 girl. She picked at the man and 390 00:23:33,600 --> 00:23:37,440 Cromwell stabbed him with his BNS in the stomach, out of which 391 00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:42,080 spurted the milk. After this event, Cromwell told 392 00:23:42,080 --> 00:23:44,680 his soldiers that this was a warning that none of his 393 00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:47,400 soldiers could do anything without his permission. 394 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:52,240 That Milky story comes from collector George Murphy address 395 00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:55,960 Wexford, County Wexford from informant Mr. Patrick Davis. 396 00:23:59,880 --> 00:24:02,640 The principal evidence against Cromwell comes from his own 397 00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:05,600 reports during the time sent to the Speaker of the English 398 00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:08,560 Parliament. They are the words of a general 399 00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:11,000 insensitive to the suffering of the Irish people. 400 00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:14,480 Conditioned by the relentless propaganda of the last 10 years 401 00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:16,880 into believing that Irish Catholics were collectively 402 00:24:16,880 --> 00:24:20,520 responsible for the torture and killing of 1000 unarmed 403 00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:23,480 Protestant settlers, he convinced himself that this was 404 00:24:23,480 --> 00:24:28,280 a righteous religious force. Cromwell was not a radical who 405 00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:31,120 wished purely for there to be no monarch in England. 406 00:24:31,120 --> 00:24:33,760 Uh, don't give him that credit. He was fighting not for 407 00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:37,040 politics, but for his faith. It appears, much like his 408 00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:40,000 epiphany during his period of depression, that Cromwell felt 409 00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:43,040 like an agent of God and likely spoke with the confidence of 410 00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:44,560 one. It is said that Cromwell had a 411 00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:47,800 firm and frightening belief in Providentalism, A belief that 412 00:24:47,800 --> 00:24:50,960 God was actively directing the affairs of the world through the 413 00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:54,640 actions of chosen people, whom God had provided for such a 414 00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:57,160 purpose. So Cromwell obviously considered 415 00:24:57,160 --> 00:25:01,080 himself chosen by God. So Cromwell's strength was that 416 00:25:01,080 --> 00:25:03,520 he knew how to discipline a pious cavalry. 417 00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:06,840 He knew how to lead and train his men using moral authority. 418 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:10,200 It seemed he had the assuredness of someone who felt that God was 419 00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:12,520 truly on their side. He thought he was doing the 420 00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:15,040 right thing and that God was working through them. 421 00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:18,200 He heavily relied on biblical imagery and sought meaning and 422 00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:21,200 messages from Bible passages to validate his decisions, 423 00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:26,200 including Psalm 17 and 105. They that are implicable and 424 00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:29,680 will not leave troubling the land may be speedily destroyed 425 00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:34,240 out of the land and SI 8IN which kingdoms fall and only the godly 426 00:25:34,240 --> 00:25:37,520 survive. For Cromwell, the army was God's 427 00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:40,080 chosen instrument. Cromwell believed himself, as it 428 00:25:40,080 --> 00:25:42,960 seems to be the divinely ordained instrument of God's 429 00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:47,360 retribution. He wrote this of Rahada in the 430 00:25:47,360 --> 00:25:50,000 He's of action. I forbade them to spare any that 431 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:54,000 were in arms in the town, and I think that night they put to the 432 00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:59,760 sword about 2000 men, divers of the officers and soldiers, being 433 00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:02,840 fled over the bridge into the other part of the town, where 434 00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:06,400 about 1000 of them possessed Saint Peter's steeple and two 435 00:26:06,400 --> 00:26:09,120 other towers. I ordered the steeple of Saint 436 00:26:09,120 --> 00:26:12,000 Peter's to be fired, where one of them was heard to say in the 437 00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:15,600 midst of the flames. God damn me, God confound me. 438 00:26:15,760 --> 00:26:19,080 I burn, I burn. The next day the other two 439 00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:22,720 towers were summonsed when they submitted, Their officers were 440 00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:26,040 knocked on the head, and every 10th man of the soldiers killed 441 00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:29,040 and the others shipped as slaves to Barbados. 442 00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:32,600 The last Lord's day before the storm, the Protestants were 443 00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:35,400 thrust out of the great church called Saint Peter's, and they 444 00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:39,360 had a public Mass there. And in this very place near 1000 445 00:26:39,360 --> 00:26:42,920 Catholics were put to the sword, fleeing to their for safety. 446 00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:46,360 I believe all the Friars were knocked promiscuously on the 447 00:26:46,360 --> 00:26:50,440 head, but two, the one of which was Father Peter TAFE, whom the 448 00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:52,320 soldiers took and made an end of. 449 00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:55,600 The other, was taken into the round Tower under the repute of 450 00:26:55,600 --> 00:26:58,000 a Lieutenant. And when he understood that the 451 00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:01,120 officers in the tower had no quarter, he confessed that he 452 00:27:01,120 --> 00:27:04,320 was indeed a Friar, But that did not save him. 453 00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:12,160 So all of those taught to be soldiers, priests and Franciscan 454 00:27:12,160 --> 00:27:15,840 Friars were quickly executed. In addition, there was the 455 00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:18,600 burning alive of those who took refuge in the Tower of Saint 456 00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:21,840 Peter's Church. Rather than starve or buy them 457 00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:25,040 out with a promise of quarter, Cromwell's men piled the wooden 458 00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:29,320 pews of the church under the tower and set the church ablaze. 459 00:27:30,360 --> 00:27:33,200 Cromwell's crusade of Ireland was effective, and it was 460 00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:36,360 effective precisely because of its inhumanity. 461 00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:41,080 Cromwell's reference to the 1000 killed in or near Saint Peter's 462 00:27:41,080 --> 00:27:44,400 Church is difficult to square with the military accounts, and 463 00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:47,360 significant numbers of civilians must have been included in that 464 00:27:47,360 --> 00:27:50,240 figure. A week later Cromwell wrote that 465 00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:53,240 he was sending a list of the officers, and he named nearly 466 00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:57,640 100, and notes the numbers killed beyond that were 220 467 00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:02,120 cavalrymen, 2500 foot soldiers, besides staff officers, 468 00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:04,600 surgeons, and the town's many inhabitants. 469 00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:09,400 Cromwell knew that a large part of the Garrison and all its 470 00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:12,280 senior officers were English Catholics, and that the rest 471 00:28:12,280 --> 00:28:15,160 were drawn from Ormond's regiments, whose first duty in 472 00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:18,120 the 1640s had actually been to fight against Irish rebels. 473 00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:20,840 The following quotation, therefore, represents Cromwell's 474 00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:24,360 attribution of racial guilt to all The Irish for the slaughters 475 00:28:24,360 --> 00:28:28,760 of 1641 where a judgment on the civilian casualties to whom he 476 00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:31,800 wrongly but plausibly believed had been caught up in that 477 00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:35,680 Ulster rebellion and massacre in 1641 to 1642. 478 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:40,960 I am persuaded that this is a righteous judgment of God upon 479 00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:44,640 these barbarous wretches who haven't brewed their hands in so 480 00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:47,640 much innocent blood, and that will tend to prevent the 481 00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:50,680 effusion of blood for the future, which are the 482 00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:54,520 satisfactory grounds for such actions which otherwise cannot 483 00:28:54,680 --> 00:28:59,240 but work remorse and regret. His report on the slaughter at 484 00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:01,880 Wexford, to the speaker, is even more graphic. 485 00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:08,320 We intended better to this place than so great a ruin, hoping the 486 00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:11,040 town might be of more use to you and your army. 487 00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:15,560 Yet God would not have it so, but by all unexpected Providence 488 00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:19,000 in his righteous justice brought a just judgement upon them, 489 00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:23,080 calling them to become a prey to the soldier who I'll their 490 00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:26,640 piracies had met prey so many families, and made with their 491 00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:29,760 bloods to answer the cruelties which they had exercised on the 492 00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:33,440 lives of poor Protestants. The soldiers got a very good 493 00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:36,120 booty in this place. However, I could have wished for 494 00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:39,000 their own good and the good of the Garrison that they had been 495 00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:42,840 more moderate. Cromwell is also not ambiguous 496 00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:45,920 to the fact that the atrocity will be followed up by an ethnic 497 00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:49,720 cleansing course. The town is so now in your power 498 00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:53,440 that of the former inhabitants, I believe scarce one in 20 can 499 00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:55,560 challenge any property in their houses. 500 00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:59,200 Most of them are runaway and many of them were killed in the 501 00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:03,280 service and it may be wished that an honest people would come 502 00:30:03,360 --> 00:30:06,520 and plant here, where there are very good houses and other 503 00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:08,680 accommodations to be fitted to their hands. 504 00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:15,480 By August 16. 52 The reduction of Ireland had been effectively 505 00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:17,920 completed. To all intents and purposes, 506 00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:20,360 Ireland was at the mercy of the British state. 507 00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:23,480 In that month Parliament passed the Act of Settlement, 508 00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:26,680 proclaiming that it was not their intention to extrepate the 509 00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:30,160 whole nation, but to pardon all husbands, men, ploughmen, 510 00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:33,920 labourers, artificers, and other of the inferior sort, and to 511 00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:36,840 punish those of higher rank, according to their respective 512 00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:39,680 demerits. But great swathes of people, at 513 00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:42,680 least 100,000, were exempted from pardon of life in the 514 00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:46,280 state. So those of the quoted. 515 00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:51,400 Inferior source were said to be banished and those higher born 516 00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:54,840 all their estates and property. They were only allowed to have 517 00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:58,200 land equivalent to 1/3 of the value of their current estates 518 00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:00,640 in such place in Ireland as Parliament would decide. 519 00:31:00,760 --> 00:31:03,160 So they were shunted off to Connacht or County Clare. 520 00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:07,680 There was also a punishment. Of death for anyone that was 521 00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:10,600 found within a mile of the coast or of the River Shannon. 522 00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:14,240 All clergy and. Friars are banned from Ireland 523 00:31:14,240 --> 00:31:16,400 on punishment of death or enslavement. 524 00:31:16,720 --> 00:31:19,560 In three of the four provinces of Ireland, Ulster, Leinster and 525 00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:22,080 Munster, there weren't to be any Catholics at all. 526 00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:24,920 This was an ethnic cleansing of huge scale. 527 00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:28,080 But deciding who was to be punished proved beyond the 528 00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:31,480 resources of the English state. So rather than the 100,000 529 00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:35,680 quoted, probably only 200 people were executed under the ACT, but 530 00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:39,440 200 people executed under the legislative tyranny of the 531 00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:41,760 English state on grounds purely of religion. 532 00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:47,120 Though the big case. Against Cromwell, if you take it 533 00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:51,280 from a completely sort of neutral standing and and and 534 00:31:51,280 --> 00:31:54,120 even forget about the fact that England should have never been 535 00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:57,320 in Ireland in the 1st place, it was that he behaved radically 536 00:31:57,320 --> 00:31:59,680 different in Ireland than anywhere else that he behaved in 537 00:31:59,680 --> 00:32:03,040 Britain in any of the wars in England or in Scotland. 538 00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:06,880 There wasn't anything nearly on the scale of the massacres that 539 00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:10,280 occurred in Rahada and Wexford. Particularly the death rate in 540 00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:13,880 these military engagements in England were usually between 5 541 00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:17,720 and 10%, but at Rahada and Wexford it was almost 80%. 542 00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:22,120 By Cromwell's own admission these included non combatants, 543 00:32:22,280 --> 00:32:26,240 so citizens of the town and in the knowledge that these people 544 00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:30,440 weren't militants. There is detailed testimony. 545 00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:33,400 From royalist sources that several Protestant officers 546 00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:36,880 surrendered on quarter and subsequently were killed and 547 00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:39,760 there is some credible Catholic testimony from Wexford of 548 00:32:39,760 --> 00:32:43,080 atrocities against civilians after the town had been secured. 549 00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:46,840 So Cromwell and his forces were murdering civilians after they 550 00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:49,200 knew that the town had been captured. 551 00:32:50,160 --> 00:32:53,880 And since Merle is taking a very solicitor like court like 552 00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:58,480 unemotional, fact based approach to Cromwell's time in Ireland, 553 00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:01,280 these are just of the accounts that one can verify. 554 00:33:01,960 --> 00:33:04,880 Catholic Bishop Nicholas French, who was near the town, gave a 555 00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:08,040 vivid account of scourgings, tortures and hangings of unarmed 556 00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:11,480 civilian priests and Friars. Cromwell had undertook this 557 00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:15,160 mission knowing full well what the outcome would be, and there 558 00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:17,440 was always this assumption that the best of the land would be 559 00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:21,480 carved up and given back to those who had invested in the 560 00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:28,320 tyranny. Mud Cabin Long ago when Oliver. 561 00:33:28,320 --> 00:33:30,600 Cromwell was robbing and killing in Ireland. 562 00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:32,640 He was riding one day into our club. 563 00:33:33,760 --> 00:33:35,920 He met a man on the road and asked him his name. 564 00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:39,360 My name is Oliver. Carney said the man. 565 00:33:40,280 --> 00:33:43,400 Well, said Cromwell. You're the first man of my own 566 00:33:43,400 --> 00:33:45,640 name I met since I came to this country. 567 00:33:46,320 --> 00:33:49,280 Go out to the rock and climb on top of it and all the land you 568 00:33:49,280 --> 00:33:53,760 see from there I will give you. I want nothing from you. 569 00:33:53,760 --> 00:33:55,600 But my own little house, said the man. 570 00:33:57,120 --> 00:33:59,400 A poor man I. Found you and a poor man. 571 00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:03,200 I will leave you, said Cromwell. When all the rest of the town 572 00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:06,200 was in flames, a little mud cabin was left standing. 573 00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:09,280 It was still there until some years ago, and there was still a 574 00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:14,880 family of carnies living in it. Collector George Bass, age 14, 575 00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:17,400 address Balanagari, Lower County Wexford. 576 00:34:17,719 --> 00:34:22,560 Informant Mr. Andrew Kinsella, age 66, address Tober Patrick, 577 00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:29,520 County Wicklow. It should be. 578 00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:32,880 Added as well that another key feature of genocide and ethnic 579 00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:36,199 cleansing that Oliver Cromwell inflicted on to the population 580 00:34:36,199 --> 00:34:41,199 in Ireland between 1650 and 1660 was the destruction of harps and 581 00:34:41,199 --> 00:34:44,280 organs. Cromwell was also scorching 582 00:34:44,280 --> 00:34:46,080 native Irish culture from the land. 583 00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:49,159 Harps were burned and Harpers were forbidden to congregate, 584 00:34:49,280 --> 00:34:52,120 and Harpers and minstrels who had once entertained kings were 585 00:34:52,120 --> 00:34:55,199 reduced to travelling from place to place, begging for a living 586 00:34:55,199 --> 00:34:57,840 where they could. By the end of the 18th century 587 00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:01,720 traditional Irish Harpers had became nearly extinct and it's 588 00:35:01,720 --> 00:35:05,200 very likely a lot of traditional Irish music was lost. 589 00:35:05,840 --> 00:35:08,760 If you want a little bit more on that, we did an episode called 590 00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:13,040 Invention of Music which deals in all things music and Ireland. 591 00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:17,440 Cromwell ordered nobody by any means in military or religious 592 00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:19,640 orders to be spared whilst he was in Ireland. 593 00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:22,880 Cromwell did in Ireland what was technically in accordance with 594 00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:25,600 well established military codes of practice at the time. 595 00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:29,320 It could be suggested that Cromwell was heavy-handed at the 596 00:35:29,320 --> 00:35:31,960 beginning of his conquest of Ireland, so that when he reached 597 00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:34,720 further towns that people would be more likely to surrender. 598 00:35:34,720 --> 00:35:38,640 Knowing how aggressive he had been in some of his first sieges 599 00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:42,840 on the 10th of September 1649, a week after arriving at the town 600 00:35:42,840 --> 00:35:45,680 walls, Cromwell summons the Governor of Drahada to 601 00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:48,520 surrender. Within 24 hours his message was 602 00:35:48,520 --> 00:35:50,960 clear. No surrender and no quarter. 603 00:35:51,720 --> 00:35:55,520 This idea of no surrender and no quarter was actually in accord 604 00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:57,160 with the laws of war at the time. 605 00:35:57,320 --> 00:36:00,680 It's also interesting and shocking to note that there was 606 00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:04,240 an ordinance of no quarter to the Irish at the time and this 607 00:36:04,240 --> 00:36:07,400 was a decree of the English Long Parliament in response to the 608 00:36:07,400 --> 00:36:11,480 Irish Catholic Confederation threats to send troops from 609 00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:14,000 Ireland to support King Charles the First during the English 610 00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:16,400 Civil War. And effectively what this decree 611 00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:18,840 meant was and that even if you promised people wouldn't be 612 00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:21,640 executed after they surrendered you, you could go back on those 613 00:36:21,640 --> 00:36:23,680 claims as long as they were Irish. 614 00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:27,480 In the strictest of terms, Cromwell cannot be called a warm 615 00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:29,200 criminal. And just in the strictest of 616 00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:34,520 terms under the circumstances that what he did war, legal war 617 00:36:34,520 --> 00:36:37,560 practices. But barbaric laws do not condone 618 00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:39,960 barbarism. You're still you're still a 619 00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:41,720 prick under prick laws, you know what I mean? 620 00:36:43,840 --> 00:36:47,000 Lord Gormanstown. In the time of Cromwell, the 621 00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:50,120 government gave the land to his soldiers and made landlords of 622 00:36:50,120 --> 00:36:53,560 them, And then those landlords got rich with every farmer 623 00:36:53,560 --> 00:36:57,160 paying his rent to them. It is, said Cromwell went. 624 00:36:57,240 --> 00:36:59,800 To Lord Gormanstown and asked him who he was. 625 00:37:00,240 --> 00:37:03,880 He said he was Lord Gormanstown today, whoever he'd be tomorrow, 626 00:37:04,880 --> 00:37:08,000 Cromwell said he would be Lord Gormanstown tomorrow because he 627 00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:11,720 had tables and food ready for Cromwell's army collector, 628 00:37:11,920 --> 00:37:15,120 Evelyn Butterly. So essentially, after those 629 00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:19,720 first barbaric sort of unyielding warfare, Cromwell 630 00:37:19,720 --> 00:37:23,000 showed restraint. And if people surrendered, you'd 631 00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:25,680 go a bit easier on them. Even if it is a folk story of 632 00:37:25,680 --> 00:37:28,720 Lord Gorman's town, If you bend over, I won't kick you in the 633 00:37:28,720 --> 00:37:32,200 ass. Cromwell did write in his diary 634 00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:36,360 that the sack of Drahada would tend to prevent the effusion of 635 00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:39,520 blood for the future. I suppose it can be debated what 636 00:37:39,520 --> 00:37:43,640 he meant by that. You might read it in a way that 637 00:37:43,640 --> 00:37:46,680 he's saying that he's killing, he's killing future terrorists 638 00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:49,760 for want of a better word, that he he killed so many because 639 00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:51,000 then they wouldn't rise up again. 640 00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:54,360 Or perhaps he meant, as Merrill states here, that Drahada and 641 00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:58,720 Wexford were akin to a Harashima and Nagasaki, that the 642 00:37:58,720 --> 00:38:02,920 application of an economy of evil to save more lives in the 643 00:38:02,920 --> 00:38:05,520 long run. This, of course, is a morally 644 00:38:05,520 --> 00:38:08,440 contested view, but it is interesting to note that in some 645 00:38:08,440 --> 00:38:12,240 of the folk stories there, it's kind of he's nice to the kids, 646 00:38:12,240 --> 00:38:17,280 you know, he he that soldier stole the girl's milk and he 647 00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:20,960 stabbed that soldier. So I don't know, baby, baby, 648 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:23,640 baby, that's the thing. He was karma, was probably a 649 00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:26,840 crazy religious nut, but maybe a crazy religious nut that that 650 00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:28,960 stood in his weird warped morals. 651 00:38:29,960 --> 00:38:33,480 After Cromwell left Ireland, it didn't get much better. 652 00:38:34,080 --> 00:38:37,160 There were several more atrocities after his departure. 653 00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:41,200 General Fleetwood introduced a policy of reprisal which pre 654 00:38:41,200 --> 00:38:44,680 echoes Nazi cruelty. If an English soldier was killed 655 00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:49,200 by snipers or bandits, then the nearest community was given 24 656 00:38:49,200 --> 00:38:52,760 to 48 hours to hand over those responsible for summary 657 00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:56,440 execution or they would all be seized and transported into 658 00:38:56,440 --> 00:38:58,680 slavery. So, Jesus, if you were living in 659 00:38:58,680 --> 00:39:01,760 a town and an English soldier got killed beside your town, you 660 00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:05,880 better rat, or you better know who to rat on, or else you're 661 00:39:05,880 --> 00:39:09,400 heading off the Barbados. Not in a fun way, but anyhow, 662 00:39:10,080 --> 00:39:12,520 the whole English political and military establishment in 663 00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:17,040 Ireland can be blamed for this. Cromwell and. 664 00:39:17,040 --> 00:39:20,160 The Devil. When Cromwell was in Kilkenny, 665 00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:22,120 the devil told him everything that happened. 666 00:39:22,520 --> 00:39:25,000 One day the Catholics were talking of how they would kill 667 00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:27,880 Cromwell. The devil was listening to it, 668 00:39:28,280 --> 00:39:30,800 but one of the Catholics that was outside the room saw the 669 00:39:30,800 --> 00:39:32,400 Devil listening to what they were saying. 670 00:39:33,120 --> 00:39:35,920 The Catholic took the sword from a scabbard and threw it at him 671 00:39:36,200 --> 00:39:39,920 and drove him out to the window. And ever since, that window has 672 00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:43,200 been black. As he was going to. 673 00:39:43,200 --> 00:39:45,960 The Protestant's house, his footprints remained on the 674 00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:49,360 doorstep. It is he, the Devil that told 675 00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:51,720 Cromwell everything that the Catholics were going to do. 676 00:39:52,520 --> 00:39:54,720 The Devil told Cromwell that he was going to be killed. 677 00:39:54,960 --> 00:39:58,320 When Cromwell heard this, he put one of his men on his throne and 678 00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:01,240 dressed him like himself. The next day the Catholic went 679 00:40:01,240 --> 00:40:03,680 to the Tower and he saw a man like Cromwell. 680 00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:06,920 He took his sword again and threw it at him, and he cut the 681 00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:10,040 head right off the man. When the Catholic saw the head, 682 00:40:10,040 --> 00:40:14,120 he knew it wasn't Cromwell's. The Catholic did not go away. 683 00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:18,480 When Cromwell saw the headless man on his stone chair, he went 684 00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:21,200 up to see him. When the Catholic saw Cromwell 685 00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:23,480 looking at the man, he threw his sword again. 686 00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:25,480 And he killed Cromwell this time. 687 00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:28,480 And that is how Oliver Cromwell was killed. 688 00:40:29,840 --> 00:40:34,200 Informant Miss Mary Deegan, EH, addressed New Park County 689 00:40:34,200 --> 00:40:36,800 Kilkenny. So that's an idea there of how 690 00:40:37,920 --> 00:40:40,280 hearsay and folk stories you can't really rely on them. 691 00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:44,320 Oliver Cromwell, of course, did eventually die, but it was from 692 00:40:44,320 --> 00:40:46,880 some form of malaria and a kidney stone disease. 693 00:40:46,880 --> 00:40:49,880 So someone he wasn't killed in Ireland. 694 00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:52,560 He was only here nine months. He went home. 695 00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:59,520 But I did find it funny in my research that he was buried, of 696 00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:04,280 course, and when the monarchy was restored, Royalists dug him 697 00:41:04,280 --> 00:41:08,760 up his rotting corpse and hung him or hanged him as his right 698 00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:09,880 to say. It's just crazy. 699 00:41:10,240 --> 00:41:14,240 Anyway, the last in effect of Cromwell's tyranny in Ireland is 700 00:41:14,240 --> 00:41:17,920 felt and there are myriad quotes and instances one could pull 701 00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:22,160 from Irish people, politicians and poets, even the Teflon 702 00:41:22,160 --> 00:41:25,480 T-shirt purzier, and asked for Cromwell's portrait to be taken 703 00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:28,800 down before he had a meeting with the British MP Robin Cook. 704 00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:33,520 But perhaps most affecting of all is a quote from Englishman 705 00:41:33,640 --> 00:41:36,840 Winston Churchill. He himself spent his first few 706 00:41:36,840 --> 00:41:40,120 years of childhood in occupied Ireland at the viceroy's 707 00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:43,120 residence. Now Arasanuktaran is marred by 708 00:41:43,120 --> 00:41:46,160 criticism surrounding his callous reaction to the Bengal 709 00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:49,440 famine in 1943. And despite the Churchillian 710 00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:52,760 notion which supported colonialism and an imperial race 711 00:41:52,760 --> 00:41:56,320 predestined by moral character to rule and refashion the world 712 00:41:56,320 --> 00:41:59,960 in a British image, it is poignant that even he had this 713 00:41:59,960 --> 00:42:03,800 to say in 1957 of Cromwell's conquest of Ireland. 714 00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:08,160 Cromwell's record. Was a last in Bain, by an 715 00:42:08,160 --> 00:42:11,760 uncompleted process of terror, by an iniquitous land 716 00:42:11,760 --> 00:42:15,040 settlement, by the virtual proscription of the Catholic 717 00:42:15,040 --> 00:42:18,240 religion, by the bloody deeds already described. 718 00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:21,800 He cut new gulfs between the nations and the creeds. 719 00:42:22,440 --> 00:42:26,200 Hell or Conuct were in the terms he thrust upon the native 720 00:42:26,200 --> 00:42:31,400 inhabitants, and they for their part, across 300 years, have 721 00:42:31,400 --> 00:42:35,680 used as their keenest expression of hatred the curse of Cromwell. 722 00:42:35,680 --> 00:42:40,640 On you, Upon all of us, there still lies the curse of 723 00:42:40,640 --> 00:42:44,360 Cromwell. Churchill 1957. 724 00:42:47,440 --> 00:42:50,680 I mentioned at the start. Of the podcast GK Chesterton's 725 00:42:50,680 --> 00:42:54,600 remark on Cromwell's genocide that the Irish can never forget 726 00:42:54,600 --> 00:42:58,280 it and the English can never remember it, and perhaps this is 727 00:42:58,280 --> 00:43:02,320 the flaw baked into many stalwart colonial and Western 728 00:43:02,320 --> 00:43:05,280 attitudes. For one to forgive and forget, 729 00:43:05,360 --> 00:43:07,640 there must be evidence of a changed behaviour. 730 00:43:07,640 --> 00:43:11,080 And whilst Ireland's government shies away from criticism of 731 00:43:11,080 --> 00:43:14,520 colonial oppression, Britain, America and other colonial 732 00:43:14,520 --> 00:43:17,880 powers still centuries on, aids bets and benefits for them. 733 00:43:18,280 --> 00:43:21,520 And we as a nation, at least on a governmental level, are siding 734 00:43:21,520 --> 00:43:23,120 with them. The. 735 00:43:23,120 --> 00:43:25,800 Displacement of a. People for a new settler 736 00:43:25,800 --> 00:43:29,560 colonial habitation. Much of what you see on the news 737 00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:32,520 today could read like a history book, or vice versa. 738 00:43:32,960 --> 00:43:36,480 And some people confusedly take Ireland's position as subjects 739 00:43:36,480 --> 00:43:40,040 of ethnic discrimination in the past as a hall pass for 740 00:43:40,040 --> 00:43:44,280 political silence, as if our ancestors punishment absolves us 741 00:43:44,280 --> 00:43:48,480 from rather than inspires us to assist others presently facing 742 00:43:48,640 --> 00:43:51,480 the same moral crimes and injustices. 743 00:43:51,800 --> 00:43:54,960 It would be ignorant of us to assume that baked into our DNA 744 00:43:55,200 --> 00:43:57,600 is not only that of the displaced Irish, but the 745 00:43:57,600 --> 00:44:00,640 settlers of Cromwellian and other such plantations. 746 00:44:01,120 --> 00:44:03,880 We have to choose which footsteps to follow in into the 747 00:44:03,880 --> 00:44:06,560 future. Our goal shouldn't be to join or 748 00:44:06,560 --> 00:44:09,240 cower to the colonial ranks, but to defy them. 749 00:44:10,560 --> 00:44:13,040 It should be as. Easy for us to understand the 750 00:44:13,040 --> 00:44:16,360 resistance movements in other countries, as it is for us to 751 00:44:16,360 --> 00:44:19,920 understand the resistance during the Ulster Rebellion, or indeed 752 00:44:19,920 --> 00:44:22,960 the resistance of the rebellion which led to the country that 753 00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:41,040 we're currently living in. I sing you a song. 754 00:44:41,080 --> 00:44:52,040 Of peace and love. The winners write the history. 755 00:44:52,360 --> 00:44:55,000 And the losers write the songs is our prayer. 756 00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:10,600 When we were savage, fierce and wild, she came like a mother to 757 00:45:10,600 --> 00:45:16,360 her only child, who took us from primeval slime, who kept our 758 00:45:16,360 --> 00:45:19,320 hands from wanton crime, who sent us to heaven in their own 759 00:45:19,320 --> 00:45:31,760 good time. Our father's off to a naughty 760 00:45:31,760 --> 00:45:34,800 boy. Guns and. 761 00:45:34,800 --> 00:45:55,520 Pikes a dangerous time. Oh, Irish men. 762 00:45:55,520 --> 00:45:59,560 Forget the past. And think of the time. 763 00:45:59,560 --> 00:46:03,560 That's coming faster. When we'll all. 764 00:46:03,560 --> 00:46:08,200 Be civilized, neat and clean and well advised. 765 00:46:09,320 --> 00:46:11,400 Oh, won't Mother England be surprised? 766 00:46:13,600 --> 00:46:16,800 And if I need to spell it out, rebalanced. 767 00:46:23,240 --> 00:46:24,360 From the rivers of the. Sea.