Cromwell Massacres Drogheda: 3,500 Killed After Siege
Oliver Cromwell stormed the town of Drogheda on September 11, 1649, after the Royalist garrison refused to surrender. Cromwell's New Model Army breached the walls on the third assault and showed no quarter. An estimated 3,500 people were killed, including the entire garrison, Catholic priests who were found in the town, and an unknown number of civilians. Cromwell defended the massacre in a letter to Parliament, calling it "a righteous judgment of God upon these barbarous wretches." He intended the slaughter as a terror tactic to force other Irish garrisons to surrender without a fight, and several did. Drogheda became the defining atrocity of the Cromwellian conquest and remains one of the most emotionally charged events in Irish-British relations.
September 11, 1649
377 years ago
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