Life would never again be the same for the O’Kelleher family, after the conquering of Ireland by the English butcher, Sir Oliver Cromwell, (circa1649), and the brutal consequences of his occupation. These British barbarians, who after murdering several of the O’Kelleher family, sent the remaining O’Kelleher brothers and sisters, together with some 80,000 Irish intellectuals, to the British West Indies as slaves. Then, ‘Devine Providence’ or fate intervened, as it sometimes does, and after an enemy of the British, sank the slave ship, the O’Kelleher’s were on, they managed to find refuge on a Dutch held island. After serving five years in the Dutch navy as commandos, an opportunity presented itself, and the O’Kelleher brothers returned to Ireland, seeking their revenge on Oliver Cromwell’s butchering army. As he stepped onto the shores of Ireland, Lawrence O’Kelleher, clan chieftain of the O’Kellehers’, shouted, “Tis not us, but ye’, who should be cowering, for we come like thieves in the night, seeking our revenge.”

The ‘troubles’ were never ending. They are like a sore, whose scab, continues to bleed, after being picked at. “They would never heal, and they never have!”