Results of the Cromwellian Settlement

The story of the Munster and of the Ulster Plantations was repeated. The English who remained, especially the soldiers, ignored the prohibition against intermarrying with the native Irish. They took to themselves Irish Catholic wives, and their children, following the mothers, became Irish in habit, tongue and creed. Some of the sons and daughters of Oliver’s soldiers, we hear, could not speak a word of English. How great a failure the Settlement had been, as regards the anglicization of Ireland or the spreading within its shores of the Reformed Doctrines, is clearly shown by the results of the Census of Ireland taken by order of the Parliament in 1659.

The figures for 27 of the 32 counties are extant, and show the following results : The relative proportions of Irish to English was in Leinster 13 to 2 ; in Ulster 5 to 2 ; in Munster 10 to 1 ; while, of 87,352 inhabitants of Connacht, only 7,672 were English. In this connection the term ” English ” may be taken as equivalent to ” Protestants,” and ” Irish ” to ” Catholics.”

Above : Illustrating Picture Of The Civil War

The Act for the settling of Ireland, which passed the English Parliament in August 1652, divided the inhabitants of Ireland into classes, according to the degree to which they were, or were supposed to be, implicated in the lately suppressed rebellion.

Above : St. Patrick’s Cathedral

Since 1585 no Parliament had sat in Ireland : now it appeared expedient that one should be summoned ; not only because the King was in urgent need of money, but also in order to legalise the confiscation of the Ulster lands by the attainder of their former possessors. So far, Irish Parliaments had been representative only of a part, and that by no means a large part, of the country; the districts namely which were really under the authority of the English Crown, and sometimes of some of the southern towns. Now members would be returned from each of the counties and boroughs in the four provinces. The Catholics were almost everywhere in a great majority. To counteract their influence, forty new boroughs were created, of which nineteen were in the newly-planted lands of Ulster, while all were carefully selected as likely to return Protestant representatives. It was hoped that, by this means, a majority would always be secured for the Reformers, who were deemed to be the Government party.