Letter: Criminal Cromwell

Sir: Antonia Fraser ("Heads, you win", 3 February) refers to Oliver Cromwell leading "military expeditions" against the Irish.

What that truly evil individual did is called genocide. Just read his own accounts of how he burnt alive "near 1,000" Irish (the population of Ireland is estimated at 500,000) who had taken refuge in and around St Peter's Church, Drogheda. He even managed to ship thousands of Irish into slavery in the Caribbean.

Will British people ever have the honesty to call a spade a spade when it comes to their state's role in Ireland? The fact that that butcher is honoured in British society in 1999 shows how utterly oblivious most British people are to the misery their imperialism has caused in Ireland. It is akin to German people honouring Hitler for his economic wonders of the 1930s.

FINNeN CUINN-DE TIIT

Cige Laighean, Ireland