Expert to discuss views of Cromwell's legacy

A Trinity University professor is poised to give a lecture on the man Irish people love to hate, Oliver Cromwell.

Professor Micheal O'Siochru will give the talk in Johnston Central Library entitled 'Contested legacies: the afterlife of Oliver Cromwell'.

The historian has authored two books on the period, 'God’s Executioner: Oliver Cromwell and the conquest of Ireland' and 'Confederate Ireland, 1642-1649: A constitutional and political analysis'.

Cromwell rose from relative obscurity to become a pivotal leader of the New Model Army that won the English Civil War, was one of the signatories of King Charles's execution warrant and in the subsequent republic became the first so-called Lord Protector.

However it was his brief yet brutal stint in quelling the Irish rebellion that has resulted in him being regarded as half historical figure, half Devil in the Irish mindset. Atrocities in Wexford and of course Drogheda are often cited as (bloody) stains on his reputation. The mass confiscation of land from Catholics and oppression of the religion followed.

Professor O'Siochru's views on the different ways he is regarded in the centuries after will no doubt illuminate a tragic, defining and fascinating episode in Irish history.