Oliver Cromwell’s actions in Ireland were “completely and wholly indefensible,” the British ambassador to Ireland Paul Johnston has said.
Mr Johnston admitted that Cromwell was not alone in contributing to difficulties in Anglo-Irish relations over the centuries, but his actions in Ireland “marked him out as a uniquely despised figure”.
His actions at Drogheda and Wexford where his New Model Army slaughtered most of the inhabitants were among the “greatest atrocities in Anglo-Irish history”.
In Trinity College Dublin, Mr Johnston co-launched along with Fintan O’Toole the Letters, Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, a five-volume series .
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It is the most comprehensive compendium to date of everything Britain’s Lord Protector did and said in his tempestuous life. It features 1,077 manuscript documents by Cromwell. Many have never been made public before including documents relating to Ireland.
Professor Micheál Ó Siochrú of Trinity College Dublin is one of the editors of Volume II which covers Cromwell’s time in Ireland between 1649 and 1650.
Mr Johnston recalled that Winston Churchill had once wanted to name a Royal Navy ship after Cromwell, but his proposal was vetoed by King George V as it would be offensive to Irish people.
Mr Johnston credited Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins for changing Churchill’s perceptions of Cromwell. In 1957 Churchill wrote of Cromwell: “Cromwell’s record was a lasting bane. By an uncompleted process of terror, by an iniquitous land settlement, by the virtual proscription of the Catholic religion, by the bloody deeds already described, he cut new gulfs between the nations and the creeds... the native inhabitants… across three hundred years, have used as their keenest expression of hatred, ‘the Curse of Cromwell on you’.”
Mr Johnston noted Churchill’s comments that the memory of Cromwell had “become a potent obstacle to the harmony of the English-speaking people throughout the world”.
The ambassador said it was important to understand the context of the world in which Cromwell lived. He saw the English republic established after the regicide of King Charles I threatened by royalists and Catholics based in Ireland. His actions could also be explained by tales of the massacre of Protestant settlers by Catholics in 1641, but the “balance of the historical judgment will lay heavily against Cromwell for his brutality in Ireland”.
The ambassador stressed that he was not in any way excusing Cromwell’s behaviour in Ireland.
The ambassador said the “biggest asymmetry” in Anglo-Irish relations is that British people growing up learn know almost no Irish history while Irish people know “far too much British history”.
He referenced Oliver Callan’s BBC podcast Killing Leprechauns in which the presenter tested how little knowledge British comedians had of Irish affairs.
“In that context I would surmise that the people Oliver Callan interviewed would not be untypical of otherwise well-educated British people who frankly don’t know much about Cromwell’s legacy in Ireland”.
Speaking from Princeton, Fintan O’Toole said a study of Irish folklore carried out in the 1930s found that Daniel O’Connell is the only historical figure mentioned more than Cromwell.
Mr O’Toole said the differences of perception between Britain and Ireland about Cromwell “is one of the great divisions between the two islands in our archipelago”.
