Press secretary apologizes: Cromwell comments insult Irish community
Newt Gingrich's press secretary called Oliver Cromwell a misunderstood visionary in the Washington Post. Father Sean McManus made sure he took it back.
As printed in the Celtic Mirror, September 1995
WASHINGTON - Tony Blankley, press secretary to House Speaker Newt Gingrich, extended an apology to Father Sean McManus, president of the Irish National Caucus, and to the Irish people for his remarks printed in the Washington Post last month concerning Oliver Cromwell.
Blankley, in the Style Section of the newspaper, “Closing the book on Summer,” called Cromwell “an intriguing character. A visionary misunderstood both in his time and afterward.”
The published comments of English-born Blankley appalled and incensed McManus, who called on Gingrich to disavow the views of his press secretary and demand Blankley apologize to Irish-Americans.
In response, Blankley said he did not intend to give offense when he made the comments and included a brief biography on Cromwell and said in the letter that he “failed to make clear my utter rejection of Cromwell's Irish war and policies.”
Oliver Cromwell was the Commander of the Parliamentary Army and was the Dictator of England in the 1650s. From August 1649 to May 1650, he led the English Army in Ireland.
“Cromwell is the greatest hate-figure in Irish history,” McManus said. “Cromwell is to the Irish as Hitler is to the Jews, though on a smaller scale and from an earlier date. Even the most blatant revisionist historian in England would have to admit that Cromwell's record in Ireland was racist, ruthless, and brutally anti-Catholic.
“Cromwell slaughtered thousands of innocent Irish men, women and children. He confiscated huge amounts of Irish land, giving it to his officers. He shipped thousands of Irish children into slavery in the West Indies.”
On Sept. 2, 1649, Cromwell slaughtered thousands of people in Drogheda. In his report to Parliament he said: “I am persuaded that this is a righteous judgment of God upon these barbarous wretches.”
On Oct. 2, 1649, Cromwell laid waste the town of Wexford. He especially singled out priests and friars for death. In all, 2,000 people were put to the sword. Cromwell exulted: “We pray God may have all the glory.”
In December 1649, the Catholic Bishops of Ireland assembled to discuss the Cromwellian terror. They issued a statement warning the Irish people that Cromwell would destroy their religion, steal their lands and would ship their youth to “the tobacco islands.”
In reply to the Bishops, Cromwell wrote: “Hypocrites... is God, will God be with you? I am confident that he will not... If this people shall headily run after the counsel of their prelates and clergy... I shall rejoice to exercise the utmost severity against them.”
Cromwell forbade Catholics to celebrate Mass: “Where the Parliament of England hath power that will not be allowed of.”
“Cromwell - even allowing for the times and circumstance - was an anti-Irish racist, a hater of Catholics and a brutal religious fanatic who slaughtered Irish Catholics for the glory of God and, of course, for the good of England,” McManus said in denouncing Blankley's comments.
In his letter of apology to McManus, Blankley said he now understands the “deep and justifiable revulsion that Irish people feel at the mention of the name Cromwell,” and that “I completely share your judgement that Cromwell's abominable war against both the Irish and Catholics should be condemned now and forever.”
The men, and the record
Both men in this exchange went on with their careers. Blankley, born in London on 21 January 1948 and a child actor in The Harder They Fall with Humphrey Bogart, served seven years as Gingrich's press secretary. From 2002 to 2009 he ran the editorial page of The Washington Times and was a regular on The McLaughlin Group. He died of stomach cancer in Washington on 7 January 2012, aged 63.
Father Sean McManus founded the Irish National Caucus on 6 February 1974 at a meeting of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and its main cause has long been the MacBride Principles, his code for American companies doing business in Northern Ireland.
On the history, two dates in the 1995 article need correcting. The siege of Drogheda ran from 3 to 11 September 1649, and the town was stormed on the 11th, not the 2nd. Modern estimates put the dead at about 2,000 soldiers killed, wounded or captured, plus 700 to 800 civilians. Wexford was besieged from 2 October and sacked on 11 October 1649, with 1,500 to 2,000 killed, civilians among them. The Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 followed, barring Catholics from most public offices and handing much of their land to Protestant settlers. Some fifty thousand Irish people, prisoners of war among them, were sold as indentured servants and shipped to North America and the Caribbean.
The argument McManus anticipated did arrive. In 1999 the writer Tom Reilly, who is not an academic historian, published Cromwell, An Honourable Enemy, arguing that the orders at Drogheda were not unusually cruel by the rules of the day, which denied quarter to a town that refused surrender and was taken by storm. Cromwell remains, as the Caucus said, a deeply reviled figure in Ireland.
Questions readers ask
What did Cromwell do at Drogheda?
Cromwell besieged Drogheda from 3 to 11 September 1649. When the royalist commander Sir Arthur Aston refused to surrender, Cromwell's troops stormed the town and he ordered that no quarter be given. About 2,000 defenders were killed, wounded or captured, and an estimated 700 to 800 civilians died. Cromwell called it a righteous judgement of God.
How many people died in the sack of Wexford?
English Commonwealth forces under Oliver Cromwell besieged Wexford from 2 October 1649 and stormed it on 11 October after negotiations broke down. Between 1,500 and 2,000 people were killed, including civilians, and about 3,000 were captured. English losses were put at roughly 20 dead, a sign of how one-sided the final assault was.
Why do the Irish hate Oliver Cromwell?
Cromwell led the conquest of Ireland in 1649 and 1650, including the massacres at Drogheda and Wexford. The Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 that followed barred Catholics from most public office and transferred much of their land to Protestant settlers, and some fifty thousand Irish people were sold as indentured servants overseas.
Who was Tony Blankley?
Tony Blankley, born in London in 1948, was a Reagan administration speechwriter, press secretary to House Speaker Newt Gingrich for seven years, and editorial page editor of The Washington Times from 2002 to 2009. He was a regular panelist on The McLaughlin Group and died of stomach cancer in Washington on 7 January 2012.
