SNIPPET: Effective English control in Ireland had once been limited to "the Pale," the area including Dublin and 20-30 miles surrounding it, but during the 16th century, wanting even more control over the Irish, the English government started a long process of "colonizing" Ireland, removing property from the Irish noblemen, forcing the Irish off their land and settling "plantations" of English settlers. The Ulster land of Hugh O'NEILL was planted with thousands of Scots Presbyterians. The 17th century was one of utter defeat for the Irish. The Battle of Kinsale in 1601, a revolt led by Hugh O'NEILL, confirmed the end of the old Irish world and the downfall of the last of the Gaelic lordships. Less that fifty years later, CROMWELL's massacre of hundreds of Irish at Drogheda in September 1649 was one of the most savage attacks in history. In CROMWELL's letter to the Speaker of the Parliament of England he righteously rationalized the attack as being in God's name. But the English government wanted the land of Ireland and that meant that they had to eliminate the present landowners - the Catholics. The Catholics were moved to Connacht or Clare; land in the rest of Ireland was confiscated for government use. The Cromwellian settlement aimed to transfer the sources of wealth and power from the Catholics to the Protestants. As the poet Egan O'RAHILLY said, "foreign devils have made our land a tomb." The Irish rally to support the Catholic JAMES II of England, was quelled by the Protestant armies at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, the third defeat for the Catholic cause in 17th-century Ireland. On top of this misery was added the incredibly harsh "Penal Laws." No Catholic could own land, vote, worship, hold public office, receive an education, own a horse worth more than 5 pounds, etc., etc. The new settlers in Ireland levelled the forests to build their homes. The 18th century anonymous poem, "Kilcash" chronicles the sorrow of the lost woods, homes, and a longing that "the great come home again." Jonathan SWIFT, dean of St. Patrick's, attacked the society that could tolerate the terrible conditions of the poor. George BERKELEY, Protestant Bishop at Cloyne, directed attention to the social and economic evils of the country by asking hundreds of questions in "The Querist." Maria EDGEWORTH portrayed the excesses of wasteful land lords in "Castle Rackrent." William CARLETON and Charles KICKHAM wrote of the "dispossessed," the Irish peasants, while Charles LEVER concentrated on the privileged atmosphere of Trinity College in Dublin. Excerpts, "The Irish, A Treasury of Art and Literature," ed. Leslie Conron Carola (1993).