In March, 1649, Oliver Cromwell was appointed by the English Parliament Commander-General for Ireland, and in July he left London in State to take up his office. He landed in Ireland in August, and marched at once to Dublin. He desired to put down as quickly as possible all resistance, and to proceed with the scheme of Confiscation and Plantation which tho Parliament had already outlined. He had no scruple as to methods, no pity or sympathy for the Irish people.

His forces amounted to over 20,000 tried and well-equipped troops, and the artillery was the best and heaviest then in use.
The enemy who were to oppose him. were made up of the parties who had fought in Ireland for the past eight years : Ormondists, Old Irish, Anglo-Irish, and lastly Scotch Presbyterians, a section of whom had been so horrified at the trial and execution of Charles I that they had gone over to the Royalists.

 All these were disorganised, disheartened, suspicious of each other, weary of conflict and intrigues. Ormond, the Royalist General, had garrisoned most of the larger towns which still held for the King’s cause, and against one of the strongest of them, Drogheda, Cromwell now directed his efforts.  

Above : Picture Of Poverty At The Time

It has already been mentioned that during the earlier part of the nineteenth century a large proportion of the Irish people lived habitually on the verge of destitution. The food of about one-third of the population was almost exclusively potatoes, with which the better-off drank milk.