Geez, artbrooks ~ are we talking about the same Cromwell?

He was not there to persecute the "native" Irish, and generally didn't go out of his way to do so;...

Didn't I once hear about someone proclaiming "to Hell or Connaught?" Wasnt there a bit about dispossessing all the native Irish in the fertile lands of Ulster, banishing them to the barren west, and replacing them with "plantations" peopled with Scottish Prebyterians? Isn't there still a lot of bad blood ~ also known as "Troubles" ~ over ths very issue lo these many centuries later?

Now, I'm still ready to believe any British individual alive today who asserts he/she has no problem with the Irish. But I'd wager than anyone still speaking as an apologist for Oliver Cromwell might well find that the average Irishman has a problem with him!