Oliver Cromwell – God’s Executioner?
This is my first attempt at a history blog post, and one might say that as an Irishman, the subject is a contentious one. Long villifed in Irish history for his conduct in Ireland in 1649, growing up in Ireland I only remember bad things about him. Since living in England I have heard a different story where the episode in Ireland is largely ignored and they (understandable one might say) concentrate on the good things that he did for England. Both histories are biased towards themselves. As GK Chesterton remarked,
the tragedy of the English conquest of Ireland in the 17th century is that the Irish can never forget it and the English can never remember it
.Why is he seen this way in Ireland? Is it fair? And what about the English? Should they look beyond what he did for England and see the effect he had on other countries and their relationships with them?