[Cronos]

well, they didn't abuse the Irish for 800 years. Until 1168 time the Irish were pretty much on their own with their own High Kings. Yes, the Normans invaded, but they become very Irish -- hibernios ipsos hibernis! More irish than the irish themselves. The Normans controlled the coast while the Irish were pretty much to themselves in the interior. Then the Tudors came in 1536 (henry 8) but this was nothing compared to the genocide that Cromwell visited on the Irish, yes genocide

This is the time when the Irish stereotypes were laid -- as drunken savages closer to monkeys than humans (I kid you not, that is what the English under Cromwell and into Victorian times saw the irish as).

They didn't impose cruelty on India for hundreds of years -- they only ruled India for 150 years, the first 50 being Company rule. From 1850 until the 1920s there were incidents of cruelty -- some extremely cruel like Jallianwala bagh, but the English had the sense to realise that if they were constantly cruel, they would lose their empire quickly

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

It is often said that Cromwell visited ‘genocide’ on the Irish, but where is the evidence for this? The most cited example, the butchery at Drogheda, occurred as the result of the Irish Royalist’s refusal to surrender, necessitating the Parliamentarian Army storming the town, taking heavy casualties as a result, and according to the rules of war at the time, the garrison thus had no right to expect quarter. In any case, far from all the people in Drogheda were killed.