Tom Reilly

I come from Drogheda, Ireland. I was born there. I live there. I never left the parish. Drogheda will forever be associated with Oliver Cromwell. It is the biggest stain on his career, as he is alleged to have massacred thousands of its unarmed inhabitants; babies, toddlers, teenagers, pensioners, grannies, grandads, etc.

I have discovered that this is complete nonsense and my books (available here) have proved this. Essentialy he managed to exclude unarmed civilians from the military conflict, although a handful may have died as the result of collatoral damage in both Drogheda and Wexford. However, I constantly get push-back from people everywhere who often disagree vehemently, including historians who should know better. Opinions are not facts. My work has not yet been seriously challenged by any historian anywhere. In times yet to come, my books will stand out as the primary work that played a central role in the rehabilitation of Oliver Cromwell's murderous reputation in Ireland. I have made it my life's ambition to try to right this wrong, this historical miscarriage of justice, to overturn the erroneous verdict of history.

While no doubt an impact has been made, to date my non-fiction books have essentially failed to penetrate the wall of tradition and myth that promote Cromwell as a genocidal maniac. A book on the Irish school curriculum today entitled 'History in Focus' by Dan Sheedy and published as recently as 2018 by CJ Fallon, states that at Drogheda Cromwell massacred 3,500 'inhabitants' and at Wexford 4,000 'people'. This is complete drivel and as bad as it gets. Most recently I have written Cromwell's fictional biography to get the same message out there to a different audience. The battle is an uphill one.

The fact that I failed second level history (F) and yet I discovered a fundamental flaw in the teaching of Irish history says something inconvenient about Ireland today. It says that generations of Irish historians have perhaps purposely failed to accept, and, with few exceptions continue to fail to accept, that Oliver Cromwell was fundamentally a decent guy, a product of his time. In my opinion they did/do this so anti-English sentiment can flourish. Well, enough already. Haven't we seen enough acrimony between our two countries?! Cromwell was framed. Get over it. Can we please blame the right people for the atrocities they committed, and not an honourable man who is innocent of the cvharges against him, as I have now proved.