Presentation Brothers

Intent on revenge for the defeat at Benburb and resolved to eradicate the Irish problem once and for all, the new Lord Lieutenant, Oliver Cromwell, landed in Dublin in August 1649 with an army of 20,000. In September Cromwell captured Drogheda and ordered that all the soldiers of the garrison should be executed. 3,500 people, including women and children, were slaughtered. The garrison of Wexford suffered a similar fate and other towns chose to surrender rather than be destroyed.

Cromwell then targetted the Catholic Church, seizing and destroying property and hunting down the priests. Landowners who had been implicated in the rising were transplanted to Connacht and to Clare, west of the Shannon, and kept under close scrutiny. Many women, children, defeated soldiers and priests were shipped off to the West Indies to be sold as slaves. These were the ancestors of the 'Black Irish' of Montserrat, the Caribbean island where Irish was still spoken up to a century ago, and where many families have Irish names.

By May 1650 Cromwell was able to return to England, confident that his work in Ireland was done. All the confiscated land was used to pay for the war, blocks being allocated to officers and men for their services. Excluding Connacht and Clare land ownership in Ireland was now exclusively in Protestant hands.