Cromwellian conquest of Ireland

Oliver Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of the English Parliament in 1649. Since the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Ireland had been mainly under the control of the Irish Confederate Catholics, who in 1649, signed an alliance with the English Royalist party, which had been defeated in the English Civil War. Cromwell defeated the Confederate and Royalist coalition in Ireland and occupied the country - bringing to an end the Irish Confederate Wars. He passed a very harsh series of Penal laws against Catholics and confiscated almost all of their land. The Parliamentarian re-conquest of Ireland was extremely brutal, and it is alleged that many of Cromwell's actions during the re-conquest would today be called war crimes and genocide. Cromwell is still a hated figure in Ireland. However, a recent book claims that many of the actions taken by Cromwell were within the then accepted rules of war, or were exaggerated or distorted by later propagandists{{fn|1}}. Debate over his impact in Ireland is lively{{fn|2}}.

Long term results

The Cromwellian conquest completed the British colonisation of Ireland. It destroyed the native Irish Catholic land-owning classes and replaced them with colonists with a British Protestant identity. Irish Catholics did not become full citizens of the British state again until the 1830s and did not re-acquire significant land-ownership in Ireland until the late 19th century. The bitterness caused by the Cromwellian settlement was a powerful source of Irish nationalism from the seventeenth century onwards. A generation later, during the Glorious Revolution, Irish Catholics tried to reverse the Cromwellian settlement in the Williamite war in Ireland, where they fought en masse for the Jacobites. They were defeated once again.

Related Topics:
British - Colonisation - 1830s - 19th century - Irish nationalism - Seventeenth century - Glorious Revolution - Williamite war in Ireland - Jacobites

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