Why are the English squeamish when it comes to Irish history?

 

Oliver Cromwell

Some years ago they put on an exhibition in London called "Cromwell, Warts and All." Yet, there was no mention of Cromwell's campaign in Ireland that had begun in 1649. Cromwell's campaign in Ireland, had been consigned to the dustbin of history.

Likewise, when the ex Tory minister, Michael Portillo, was doing a program about railway journeys in Ireland, and stopped at Drogheda, not once did he refer to the massacre that took place there in 1649, when troops commanded by the English Roman Catholic, Sir Arthur Aston, refused to surrender to Cromwell. He was beaten to death with his own wooden leg as the soldiers believed he had gold coins hidden inside it. Catholic clergy were also bludgeoned to death 'knocked on the head" as Cromwell called it. It's estimated that between 700 to 800 innocent civilians lost their lives during the massacre. 

During the Irish Catholic rebellion of 1641, it's estimated that between 4,000 to 12,000 Protestants were killed mainly in Ulster. The aim of that rebellion was to end anti- Catholic discrimination, obtain greater Irish self governance, and to partially or fully reverse, the plantations of Ireland. Many had lost lands because of it. It was Cromwell who said "to Hell or Connaught." Both County Clare and Connaught were turned into Catholic reservations. In 1641, Catholics owned 42.2% of Irish land, by 1670, this had been reduced to 16.6%.