1641 Rebellion masaacre reports based on hearsay

A report in todays Irish Times shows that many of the 19,000 depositions of the 1641 rebellion were 2nd or third hand and very little were based on witness accounts. In particular "atrocities against women and children are a central image of the rebellion as reported in London newspapers and other propaganda texts of the period". The rebellion was used as justification for Cromwells pillage of the country. It was also used for justification of the enforcement of the quasi apartheid sectraian zero sum game in Ulster for the past 3-400 years. Remember 1641!! has been used as a slogan for Protestant diligence against the rise of Catholics for centuries.

It was used when a forged document indicated a Catholic plot to murder Protestants in their beds in Armagh in teh 18th century. Catholics were burned out by Protestant gangs, and the fact that those homes had their looms either smashed or stolen indicates the true purpose of the attack perhaps.

This slogan can still be seen on walls in Belfast.

Have the sectarian elements of our history been deliberately exaggerated by the British in line with the goals of the Ulster plantation, and by the Protestant elite subsequently as a means to mobilise and justify Protestant suppression of Catholic social and economic advancement.

Perhaps the 1641 rising was more about Gael Vs invader and less about Gael v's planter as the then invader would have us believe?

(I dont subscribe to IT so dont cant quote the article. If someone could add it for people to read id be grateful. Thanks)