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The English general Oliver Cromwell is infamous in Ireland for his military campaign of 1649-50. 

This unique item was printed in Cork city in early 1650. It is Cromwell’s reply to a claim by the Irish bishops that he intended to ‘extirpate the Catholic religion’. Cromwell attacked the bishops as hypocrites who lied to the ‘poor laity’ and enslaved them with ‘abominable and anti-Christian doctrine and practices.’ 

He claimed his troops had come to restore peace and avenge the massacre of Protestant civilians in 1641. The common people of Ireland could, he said, enjoy full liberty if they laid down their arms and abandoned the Roman Catholic faith. To those who would not submit, he promised the ‘utmost severity’.

Citation:
A Declaration of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, For the undeceiving of deluded and seduced People (Cork, [1650]).

,
Marsh's Library Exhibits,
accessed December 6, 2025,
https://www.marshlibrary.ie/digi/items/show/467