Cromwellian Conversations 32: Oliver Cromwell and Ireland

In August 1649 Oliver Cromwell arrived in Ireland with a large army and orders from the English Parliament to subjugate the country and bring it back under English control for the first time since the major rebellion in the autumn of 1641 and the Confederate Wars that followed. Over the next 9 months Cromwell pursued a ruthlessly efficient campaign, including two bloody sieges at Drogheda and Wexford. This campaign, the wars that followed and the land settlement imposed by the Westminster government has left Cromwell's name as one of the most reviled in Irish history. In this video the eminent historian John Morrill, Professor of British and Irish History at the University of Cambridge discusses these events in conversation with Cromwell Museum Curator Stuart Orme, looking at the story behind the Cromwellian Conquest of Ireland, whilst dispelling some myths along the way.