Irish Persecution 16th century

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𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗜𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲

𝗢𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝗺𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 (1599-1658, a Puritan = group of English Protestants who sought to "purify" people of their Catholic faith)

Oliver Cromwell is a super villain in Catholic history. He came to Ireland in 1649 and began a brutal suppression of Catholics, which created strife that is still reverberating today. He committed war crimes against Catholics. He took Catholic land and gave it to Protestants just so Catholics wouldn’t have power. In short, he was the worst.

He also helped enforce penal laws, which effectively made it illegal to be Catholic. The Irish gave exactly zero regards to this, and instead hid their faith and moved their seminaries to other countries while remaining very much Catholic and sometimes dying for that. The Rosary remained an important part of their faith, though they adopted small penal rosaries that were harder to detect.

Cromwell knew he failed at subduing the Irish to Protestantism, and he blamed the Rosary. He wrote to his superiors:

“𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘐𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘦𝘵. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘶𝘯𝘴. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘐𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘐𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘻𝘻𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘨𝘶𝘯𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘶𝘱 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳.”

You bet we do hold up our rosaries, Oliver, and you better believe we don’t surrender.