Overview: If history were music, then the genre of this book would be punk. For nearly 400 years, it has been widely accepted that Oliver Cromwell committed civilian atrocities at Drogheda and Wexford in 1649, thus adversely infecting Anglo-Irish relations for that entire period.

As well as other events in Irish history, Cromwell in Ireland has often been weaponized in the North of Ireland. Still, today, emotions about this topic run very deep.

Verdict: Imagine for a moment that Cromwell is completely innocent of these charges of genocide: the overwhelming verdict of history thus far. Imagine also a scenario in which this anomaly in the teaching of Irish history were discovered by a non-historian, an amateur who failed second-level history.

This is that story.

This is an accurate (and sideways) account of one man’s lone battle to overturn this miscarriage of historical justice - two middle fingers to mainstream academia. Most significantly, this is the story of the pushback the author has encountered from academics, in general, who have closed ranks in their reluctance to embrace incontrovertible facts.

This is the uncomfortable truth that challenges Ireland’s role of the ultimate victim of the seventeenth century’s conflicts and how this historical period has been - and still is - profoundly abused to suit the Saorstát Éireann narrative.

So we are all on the same footing here, Tomás Ó Raghallaigh (1881-1966) was an Irish language academic and writer who traveled across Ireland to gain support for Irish language revival. A colleague of Douglas Hyde, he also became an organizer for the Galway Gaelic League and spread its influence in the west of Ireland in the early 20th century.

Author Tom Reilly himself comes from Drogheda, Ireland, a place where he was born and where he still lives today. Indeed, he never left the parish and for him, Drogheda will forever be associated with Oliver Cromwell. Furthermore, it is the biggest stain on his career, as he is alleged to have massacred thousands of its unarmed inhabitants; babies, toddlers, teenagers, pensioners, grannies, grandads, etc. [Raghallaigh, not Reilly].

Thus, Tomás Ó Raghallaigh: Making A Massacre is a well-angled, sideways take on one man’s crusade to exonerate Oliver Cromwell of genocide in Ireland. For as we are gradually informed, Cromwell’s murderous campaign in Ireland was fueled by a pathological hatred of Irish Catholics, which he himself clearly expressed.

I mean, on a side note, one can only wonder how many of the c. 600,000 victims died during Cromwell’s tormented campaign. Perhaps this subject could be more fully explored in a further article within an Historical Ireland, but for now Reilly concentrates on the Raghallaigh angle.

Factually, the Cromwellian conquest completed the British colonization of Ireland, which was merged into the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1653–59. It destroyed the native Irish Catholic land-owning classes and replaced them with colonists with a British identity.

But I digress, for what we have here is a literary of Irish Cultural references that blend together to bring forth valid arguments, yet at the very same time stir the reader enough that they would like to be a little combatant about the very same arguments. Which is the sign of a great book, I think we can all agree.

About the Author - Amateur historian Tom Reilly has almost single-handedly taken on the might of academia with regard to Oliver Cromwell and has written four books on the man. He has appeared on national TV and radio in both the UK and Ireland in both documentaries and chat shows. He lives in Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland.

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