The  Rising in 1641 was followed by the formation of the Catholic Confederation which became the de facto government of Ireland, free from the control of the English administration and loosely aligned with the Royalist side in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

The subsequent Irish Confederate Wars continued in Ireland until the 1650s, when  Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army decisively defeated the Irish Catholics and Royalists, and re-conquered Ireland.

Oliver Cromwell, a Puritan and Republican, believed he was an instrument of divine retribution for (alleged) atrocities committed by Catholics against Protestants in 1641 and he accordingly gave orders to deny mercy to Catholics. His campaign was savage and is remembered for the slaughter of women and children as well as unarmed captives. As a result of deaths from war, killings, plague, disease, exposure to the elements, famine, and deportations the population of Ireland fell by an estimated one third…