New Interpretations: Cromwell & NI Civil Rights resource

Portrait of Cromwell

The current edition of History Ireland, September/October 2008, has two excellent articles which offer new perspectives on two hotly debated topics in the history of Ireland and Anglo-Irish relations:
Cromwell in Ireland and the outbreak of violence in Northern Ireland in 1969.

1. Cromwell in Ireland

THE CURSE OF CROMWELL? (pp 14-17)
On the occasion of the 350th anniversary of his death, Micheal Ó Siochrú reassesses the reputation of Ireland's favourite villain, Oliver Cromwell, asking

a. why does the public in Ireland continue to focus so much on this one individual rather than on a host of other equally controversial characters, and

b. how does Cromwell deserve to be remembered in the annals of Irish history?^{1
For further details, please contact IiS at iisresources@yahoo.co.uk}

2. Civil Rights & Violence in Northern Ireland

MYTHOLOGISING A MOVEMENT: NORTHERN IRELAND'S '68 (pp 26-9)
Simon Prince casts a cold eye on the received version of the origins of the civil rights movement,

a. challenging John Hume's version of events in Derry,²

b. questioning the significance of the early civil rights movement, and

c. arguing that it was the provocation by the few rather than the protests of the masses that changed Northern Ireland.
^{For further details, please contact IiS at iisresources@yahoo.co.uk}

Reminder: Key Stage 3 resources

A catalogue of Irish possibilities for the Programme of Study is available at http://iisresource.org/pos_01.aspx

Footnote 1. For the great English historian A. J. P. Taylor, writing on the 300th anniversary of Cromwell's death in 1958, Ireland was the ‘one great blot' on the great man's reputation, and his actions there ‘beyond all excuse or explanation'. In fact, Taylor believed that the ‘curse of Cromwell' would still be remembered when all his other achievements had been forgotten. In Ireland itself, the Protestants of Ulster, uncomfortable, perhaps, with his reputation as a regicide, choose to commemorate William of Orange instead, while for many Catholics he remains a hate figure, guilty of crimes against humanity. Cromwell was no monster, but he did commit monstrous acts. A warrior of Christ, somewhat like the crusaders of medieval Europe, he acted as God's executioner, exacting revenge and crushing all opposition, convinced throughout of the legitimacy of his cause, and striving to build a better world for the chosen few. In many ways, therefore, he remains a remarkably modern figure, relevant to our understanding of both the past and the present, somebody to be closely studied and understood rather than revered or reviled.

Footnote 2. Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume's claim that his Derry Housing Association was refused planning permission in early 1968 to build in a Protestant area because it would upset the gerrymander - and that this showed that change would only come from the street, not through the system - is suspiciously neat.
Turning to the primary sources rather than trusting personal testimony reveals divided loyalties and different definitions of reform. When Hume argued his case at a council meeting, the records show that Nationalist councillor James Doherty countered that ‘this matter was not a political issue'. He objected to the proposals as they would have seriously weakened the Londonderry Area Plan. This was an ambitious project to build almost 10,000 homes and attract new industries to the North-West.