| Oliver Cromwell led a Parliamentary invasion of | | | | with a general pardon, it was the wealth of the |
| Ireland in 1649, the parliament had disposed of | | | | country that the government of England was |
| Charles I and abolished the monarchy, it now | | | | interested in. Any Catholic landowners who had |
| wished to turn its attentions upon the Irish | | | | been involved in the rebellion lost all their estates |
| Confederate Catholics. Cromwell’s hostility | | | | and property rights, those who hadn’t were |
| was religious as well as political, he was | | | | only allowed retain a proportion of their lands but |
| passionately opposed to the Roman Catholic | | | | it was not to be same land. Ireland was divided |
| Church which he perceived as denying the | | | | into two parts, firstly Connaught and Clare to |
| primacy of the Bible in favour of papal and clerical | | | | which all those who had established their |
| authority and he blamed them for persecution of | | | | innocence were to be sent and secondly was the |
| Protestants in Europe and indeed of Ulster | | | | rest of Ireland in which confiscated lands were |
| planters in 1641. He was only nine months in | | | | used to pay off the government’s creditors - |
| Ireland but his campaign was very effective, | | | | the men who had lent money or supplies and the |
| before his arrival Parliament only possessed | | | | officers and soldiers who had served without |
| outposts at Dublin and Derry, at his departure | | | | adequate pay. It was not so much a plantation as |
| they controlled most of the eastern and northern | | | | a complete transference of wealth, power and |
| parts of the country. Cromwell’s brutality on | | | | resources from Catholics to Protestants, the |
| the royal garrison and the townspeople of | | | | Cromwellian settlement completely transformed |
| Drogheda as well as the defenders of Wexford | | | | the character of the landowning aristocracy of |
| became permanently engraved in the folk | | | | Ireland. |
| memory of the Irish. As did the terms of | | | | Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring |
| surrender, men in arms were granted freedom to | | | | Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, |
| emigrate to the Continent and more than 30,000 | | | | private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and |
| accepted this offer. The poor classes were issued | | | | independent self drive tours of Ireland. |