An excerpt from my Mother’s diary from 1935;

I think I ought to record the history of the Hodgins’ Family which I heard the other night. Apparently two brothers, (Hodgins), went across to Ireland with Oliver Cromwell. They took some of the confiscated land and settled in Tipperary. One brother became an Anglican and the other a Roman Catholic. The former came out to Canada before the potato famine and settled near Lucan [Ontario]. The Irish people put the “Curse of Cromwell” on the two brothers as well as on the rest of his followers. Dad says that’s why we have so much bad luck e.g., my brother Jack is out of a job and Nora is too. 

While she seems most concerned with the enduring effects of the curse, what jumps out at me is, “They took some of the confiscated land”.

The curse really didn’t cut too deeply. Bernice’s family descended from the brother who moved to Lucan. When she wrote this excerpt her father was a practicing dentist in Toronto. He may have been paid in chickens and garden vegetables sometimes, but the family endured the depression years in relative comfort.

Most likely the two Hodgins brothers had been a couple of hapless lads with few prospects. They either joined the army voluntarily, or they were press-ganged. An online search tells me that the land granted to the soldiers was in lieu of unpaid wages. Regardless, a gift of ill-gotten land in 1650 set up the Lucan brother’s family for subsequent generations. 

Henry VIII started it all when he looked across the Irish Sea and said, “Ireland. I should have that”. And so the bloody conquest began. How like a King to say, “I want that,” and then proceed to displace a population.

I think I’m making two separate points here. First, I’m acknowledging that my ancestors benefitted from someone else’s pain. Second, shouldn’t we know better by now? Apparently not.

Keep your joy.

Anne Milne is an every Sunday blogger, unless it’s a holiday weekend. Or summertime.