Poetry, history and sarcasm - the Irish poets of the seventeenth century hated Cromwell, and with good reason. His policy was to exterminate them and destroy all their works. The bards and members of other learned professions were spokespersons for the class the Cromwellian planters were displacing, families such as those whose names are listed here. According to Frank O'Connor the Irish peasantry were better off under the planter landlords who appreciated their capacity for hard work. A common theme of the Gaelic poetry of this period of transition is the Bards' contempt for the landless peasantry as well as for the planters. But it was the same peasant class that kept their poems alive as the Irish language became a spoken language only, when the Catholic Gaels were barred from schools and universities. Educating Catholics became a punishable offense, but Gaelic literature remained alive in the "Hidden Ireland" described by Daniel Corkery, and among exiles in the Catholic nations of continental Europe.

MORE POWER
(John Montague)

More power to you, Cromwell,
O king who crowned clodhoppers:
From your visit flowed peace,
The honey and cream of honour.

We pray the neither Kavanagh,
Nolan nor Kinsella.
Burke nor Rice, nor Roche,
Ever hold sod of their fathers.

And that only Cromwell preside,
That noble king of Clan Lout,
Who gave all to the flail wielders
And left the true heirs - nothing.

And may all in this house
Be even healthier and wealthier
A year from today; together
With all whom we like.

The Irish original, which I can't find, was the work of that old misery, Egan O'Rahilly (Aogán Ó Raithile), who was born too late to enjoy the privileges of the bardic order, and never stopped bemoaning his luck.