A city councillor in Cork, Ireland is advocating to erect a public statue of a mosquito. It wouldn’t be a statue of just any mosquito , but the pest that some — at least in Cork–believe bit the English invader, Oliver Cromwell — sending him home to die of what was once known as ‘Cork fever,’ an old name for malaria.
I like how he thinks.
And it is understandable that the Irish would not care for Cromwell. I’m all for bringing royalty to justice, but as I recall Cromwell harshly put down some type of unrest in ireland, which was not at all unusual for an English military commander.
The Irish view Cromwell the way Palestinians view Netanyahu. The English treatment of Ireland under Cromwell is a lot like the modern treatment of Palestine by Israel, which is why Irish people are so pro-Palestine.
One thing that often surprises English people who move here is just how much we hate Cromwell.
Well as far as I’m concerned the Irish standing against Israel it says a lot to their character, and I have nothing but respect for them.
Common history, so we know conquest and colonialism when we see it.
The population Ireland dropped 60% during Cromwells time there. He was also not opposed to cutting off childrens’ hands to send a message to their villages. Ya you could say “harshly”.
Jesus Christ man, I never got that part of the story, that is what turned me against Christopher Columbus or obviously Leopold and belgium, that is some fucked up shit.
Which is to say the cutting out the hands part, Columbus famously with cut the hands off of the children of Hispaniola they did not bring him enough gold which there was not enough gold to bring him, he was looking for a placer gold, there’s not that much. But King Leopold in Belgium did some of the same shit it’s really just awful to read about but Jesus Christ to know that same kind of thing happened in Ireland is well it’s not surprising. I was already well aware there’s a lot of atrocities but none of them were ever spelled out to me I just read them as the English army did a bunch of nasty shit.