On 23 October 1641 the Ulster Irish had risen in revolt. In the weeks that followed thousands of British colonists had been driven out
Few periods of Irish history are as confusing as the 1640s. During most of this time the English Civil war raged. In Ireland, these were years of massacres
During the summer of 1647 the green fields of Ireland were once more drenched red with blood. At least 3,000 Irishmen were cut down at Dungan’s Hill in Co Meath
Having taken the walled towns of Drogheda and Wexford, and slaughtered their garrisons, Oliver Cromwell relentlessly pressed on. Opposed to him were the Royalists, many of them Protestants
The Gaelic poet Sean O’Connell described Cromwell’s conquest of Ireland as ‘the war that finished Ireland’. This was close to the truth. Much of the island had been laid waste
