5. The attempts by each plantation to destroy the Catholic religion in Ireland largely failed. Apart from the Pale and the influx of Protestants – in particular Presbyterians into Ulster – Ireland remained strongly Catholic. Over the next 200 years there were many attempts to convert the population to Protestantism using both force and rewards. Despite this, Catholicism continued to be the religion of the vast majority of Irish people outside Ulster and cities.
6. The Catholic population was very angry due to the confiscation of its land. At the same time, the Protestant population was gripped with constant fear that the Catholics would rise up and kill them. This anger and fear resulted in lasting divisions between the two communities. The history of Ireland was affected by these divisions for hundreds of years and in parts of the island these divisions continued for almost the next 400 years.
7. Gaelic poets and writers in the period after the plantations wrote about the sufferings of their fellow Irishmen under the Cromwellian land system.
Source C
u An Englishman, Arthur Young, who visited Ireland over a hundred years after the Cromwellian plantation commented,
In Ireland a long series of oppressions, aided by many ill-judged laws, have brought the landlords into a habit of exerting a very lofty superiority and their vassals (tenants) into an almost unlimited submission.
Source: A Tour of Ireland by Arthur Young RECALL
1. Give two examples of restrictions Cromwell placed on Catholics after the conquest.
2. What differences in success were there between the Ulster and Cromwellian plantations?
3. In terms of culture, religion and politics what disadvantages did the Irish Catholics suffer as a result of the Cromwellian plantation?
Fig 8.16 Oliver Cromwell arrived in Ireland in 1649 with 12,000 experienced soldiers. By 1652 he had conquered the entire country.