I’m part Irish, so I knew a little bit about the Irish view of Cromwell - that he’s essentially viewed as a genocidal villain, perpetrator of massacres and immense brutality.
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The details are pretty hideous - but when I talk to English people about them, they are almost all entirely unaware that Cromwell had even had anything to do with Ireland.
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The ‘bad things’ they know about Cromwell are his joblessness, that he ‘banned’ Christmas (not exactly true) and that he had the king executed. Nothing about Ireland at all.
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Other than that, he’s viewed as an effective statesman, a bit of a hero - and perhaps a bit of a bore. Nothing worse. How he’s viewed by others is missed entirely.
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And that seems to be true of so much of English history. We don’t look at ourselves with any perspective, any sense of criticism... any reality, really. It’s all romantic stuff, glorious kings, wonderful victories etc etc.
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All the stuff with Biggar comes from this same blinkered, biased, frankly ignorant perspective. We should be proud of our history, our glorious history.
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Rule Britannia is taken quite seriously. This Royal Yacht comes from the same ridiculousness. Brexit is built from it. And yet it’s basically bunkum, and pernicious bunkum at that.
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We should face up to our history, warts and all. And there are plenty of warts. Anyway, that’s enough from me...
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Replying to @C7RKY
I have to submit my manuscript in less than a week, so I’m thinking about it a lot! :)
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Spoiled between focussing on the particularly ugly, seething warts, or just demonstrating the compulsive complexion as a whole, I imagine? Good luck. :)
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