Evening star., 1952-09-30

In 1884, as you mentioned. rum, ROM
anism and rebellion" did lose the Re-
publicans an election. In that day also.
Gen. Eisenhower would have been in
trouble with the numerous Irish Cath.
olic voters If he eulogized Oliver Crom-
well. For, to my grandmother. "Black
Oliver" was very much Of parsonage.
He was every bit as real, and every bit
as terrifying, as Hitler was to the Jews.
I recall very well her telling me that
the devil came In person to claim Crom-
wells soul the night he died: came in
great wind that uprooted trees and lev
eled houses, spreading terror and de-
struction over the countryside. Actually,
! believe that it is historical fact that
great storm did devastate England that
night, but 1t can perhaps be better
attributed to meteorology than de-
monology.
To give "Black Oliver" his due, he was
an able. intelligent, and well-educated
man. It does not appear that the mas
sacre Of Drogheda was inspired so much
by religious hatred as 1t was by political
desperation. and the desire to inspire
terror in the minds Of the Irish Royal
lists. Cromwell had no illusions about
his position. He was no Jack Cade
or Wat Tyler to be cozened with fine
words until the Royalists could set his
head over Traitors Gate. His own life.
and probably even more important to
him, the life and fortunes of the men
who followed him in rebellion, civil war.
and finally revolution, were also at
stake. He had early learned a lesson
that some of our own dilettante revolu-
tionistS might well ponder. there Is no
halfway house in treason.
When the Royalists moved to seat
young Prince Charles on the throne, he
moved fast to crush the movement be-
fore it gathered too much force. The
Irish were the first, and the most dan
gerous to him, for they were all out for
Prince Charles. The Scots. as usual,
wanted to bargain before they moved.
They wanted assurances from Charles
that their Covenant would be respected.
Cromwell moved to crush the Irish
Royalists first, with fire, sword, and
terror. before the Scots could get their
rebellion under way. He succeeded.
Drogheda would probably have given
Hitler bad dreamS-it certainly gave
them to Cromwell. Though he made
his country prosperous and respected
Gone hesitates to say happy he was an
unhappy man in his last years. An old
English history In my possession says:
HE knew the Catholics and Royalists
hated him, and he was in constant
dread of being killed. He wore armour
under his clothes, never slept two nights
in succession in the same room, always
had loaded pistols at hand, and never
came back to Whitehall by the road by
which he left it."
Cromwell, for Puritan Of his day,
was quite free from fanatical religious
prejudice. He allowed all Protestant
sects to enlist in the Ironsides, excluding
only Catholics. He removed the ban on
the Jews and allowed them to return to
England. Though he hated and de-
tested Catholics, whom he regarded as
little better than pagan idolaters "a be-
lief shared by all the Puritans), it is
doubtful If religious hatred played the
major role in the horrible massacre Of
Drogheda.. >--e
Republican.
was pleased to read Lowell Mellett's
column regarding Gen. Eisenhowers
reference tn Oliver Cromwell This has