| Subject: Earlier PoWs |
Author:
Richard
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Date Posted: 20:50:10 08/13/02 Tue
From "Stormont-Watch" - www.voy.com/70381/
Thieves & Criminals They Were - Who?
Chapter 6
>
>THE SHAME AND THE TEARS
>(The Irish Slaves)
>
>In order to carry out Oliver Cromwell’s order of
>deporting Ireland’s professional people to the British
>West Indies, the British Royal Maritime fleet put into
>service, some twenty-five ‘slave’ ships. These ships
>were diverted from service between Africa and the
>English colonies in North America, where they were
>used in the transporting of ‘black’ slaves from
>Africa. These Irish professionals, the bulk of which
>were teachers, represented all of the know teachers in
>Ireland. The English had confiscated records, listing
>the names of all the registered teacher in Ireland
>from the Irish Civil Bureau and had little trouble in
>finding them.
>
>Also included in this group, were solicitors,
>engineers, university professors, scholars, poets,
>philosophers, artists, and artisans, and any person
>who had an undergraduate degree or higher, plus trades
>people of all skill levels. It was now realized, that
>by deporting all of the tradesmen in Ireland to the
>West Indies, there would be no one left to build the
>huge palatial mansions, the wealthy English wanted
>built. After the first ships had left Ireland for the
>British West Indies, an order was issued by Sir Oliver
>Cromwell, to the effect, that all Irish craftsmen
>would have to be interviewed to ascertain what skill
>levels, in his trade, each craftsman was proficient
>in. This was to determine if they would be allowed to
>stay in Ireland or, would be forced to leave.
>
>Huge groups of these educated people were herded into
>a large meadow on the outskirts of Dublin City, where
>British soldiers surrounded them. Here the English
>recorded each person’s name, his vocation and the
>level of his education. Thousands and thousands of
>people went through this degrading procedure, before
>they were put on the ‘slave’ ships and sent to the
>British West Indies. This process took 6 months to
>complete, a sort of selective genocide.
>
>Between fifty and eighty thousand, teachers, scholars,
>solicitors, doctors, poets, writers, artists and
>artisans, were shipped to the British West Indies
>before it was over. This resulted from Sir Oliver
>Cromwell’s “Devine Judgement” decree and his policy of
>destroying Ireland’s ability to govern itself and to
>assure himself, that the remaining Irish would be
>reduced to peasants, owning nothing and relegating
>them to being beggars, servants and handling jobs of a
>subservient nature, under the ‘boot heel’ of his
>fellow countrymen.
>
>Families were torn apart. When an educated father or
>husband was shipped the British West Indies, he left
>the family to fend for itself, with no means of
>support or with few skilled family members left, to
>earn a living. Most brothers were deliberately split
>up, sending one brother to one island and the other to
>another island. The O’Kellehers were on of the
>exceptions for some reason. The English did
>everything in their power to disrupt and destroy the
>Irish family.
>
>The conditions on the ‘slave’ ships were appalling.”
>
>If this does not make you want to read the book, then
>you are probably English. This is an excerpt from the
>book titled:
>
>“To Shed a Tear”, a story of Irish Slavery in the
>British West Indies,
>By Lawrence R. Kelleher copyright 2001,
>Published by the Writers Club Press, printed in the
>United States.
>
>To think, all this time I thought they were mere
>criminals.
>
>Richard
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