England, Ireland, And Oliver Cromwell’s Lasting Musical Legacy

Posted in Culture Shock, Kiss Me I'm Irish, Music |

By Katrina Armstrong

Oliver Cromwell was the tyrant of English history: the great Lord Protector, the rebellious regicidal egoist, and the hero of none. For a murderous, cruel, coup master who died over 350 years ago, he certainly has a stronghold on some of the 20th (and 21st) century’s best-loved musicians.

Oliver Cromwell

First, a little background on our man Ollie. A supposed Tudor cousin (think Henry VIII and Elizabeth I), Cromwell became an active and vocal member of the English Parliament, eventually becoming a strong military leader who helped in the overthrow and execution of Charles I. It was during this tumultuous time that Cromwell built the “New Model Army” (a precursor to the modern English Army) which he marched into Ireland to regain control of lands from already warring Catholic anti-monarchists. The toll was huge in terms of Catholic population and land ownership. To these Catholics, Cromwell was a monster; to the English, a pretender. Why has this man carried such weight in the music of artists such as Elvis Costello, Flogging Molly, and even Morrissey?

Elvis Costello’s “Oliver’s Army” appeared on his 1979 Attractions album Armed Forces. It’s a scathing social commentary on the English imperial control of many of the world’s great cities, the racism of 1970s London, and the tight and painful control that England had over Ireland for hundreds of years. Costello himself has said:

“I made my first trip to Belfast in 1978 and saw mere boys walking around in battle dress with automatic weapons. They were no longer just on the evening news. These snapshot experiences exploded into visions of mercenaries and imperial armies around the world. The song was based on the premise ‘they always get a working class boy to do the killing’.”
—Wikipedia, Oliver’s Army

But why Cromwell? As mentioned, his New Model Army is the precursor to the modern British military and could be seen as one of the first English imperial campaigns to control outside lands. Cromwell created the full-time career military man with this army, thus putting lower class boys and men to work in the dirty parts of conflict—the work that upper class officers need not do any more.

Flogging Molly

American Celtic-punk band Flogging Molly has also tread the historical waters with their song “Tobacco Island” off of their Drunk Within a Mile of Home album. The song deals with the hardships that the Irish faced upon the arrival of Cromwell and his army forcing those deposed Catholics into servitude in the new world on plantations. The oppression felt by the Irish for generations in the new world is directly related to this incident as people of the time felt that all people forced into this type of work were of a lower type of human. Some lyrics:

Twas 1659 forgotten now for sure
They dragged us from our homeland
With the musket and their gun
Cromwell and his roundheads
Battered all we know
Shackled hopes of freedom
We’re now but stolen goods

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