Changing A Street Name

St. Patrick's Day has come and gone, generally ignored because of the pandemic in even St. Paul, Minnesota, where its celebration has been a significant event for many years. The large and exuberant Irish Catholic population, and their friends, delight in a day and night of Hibernian food, drink and horseplay. 

A growing world-wide pandemic put a damper on the festivities this year but it hasn't erased questions about the Irish in St. Paul and Minnesota.

There are 13 Roman Catholic parishes in St. Paul and throughout the state about 22% of the population follows that faith. Of course, not all Catholics are Irish and not all Irish are Catholics but there is a considerable correspondence. What makes this a matter of interest is the St. Paul street called Cromwell Ave.

According to the Ramsey County Historical Society, Cromwell Ave. is named for the Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland, Oliver Cromwell.

  Cromwell, a born-again Puritan, was the organizer of the Parliamentarians'  New Model Army, the most significant factor in the defeat of the royalists in the War of the Three Kingdoms during the period 1648-1650. Later he led the English forces in the continuing subjugation of Ireland, which included massacres at Wexford and Drogheda, and the enslavement of thousands of  Irish who were sent to the West Indies. His life was devoted to exterminating Catholics in general and Irish Catholics in particular. 

Cromwell became the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth in 1653 and served in that position until his death in 1658. In 1660, heir to the throne of the United Kingdom, Stuart Charles II returned to the country, inspiring the most joyous celebration there before or since.  Cromwell's body was exhumed and beheaded and his head displayed on a pike outside Westminster Hall for 18 years.

While Protestant English historians are inclined to treat Cromwell's memory with a certain amount of respect, he remains, after 362 years, perhaps the most hated figure in Irish history. If it's appropriate to cart away memorial statues of Confederate generals from public spaces and remove a reference to John C. Calhoun from a small lake in Minneapolis, it's just as valid to erase the name of a human monster from a short stretch of pavement in a city with a large Catholic and Irish presence. After all, no one has suggested that a St. Paul street be named Hitler Parkway.