In September 1649, Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army laid siege to Drogheda, a key stronghold of the Catholic Confederation. After the town fell, Cromwell ordered the massacre of the garrison and many civilians, an event that became a symbol of English brutality in Ireland. The siege and massacre at Drogheda were part of Cromwell's campaign to crush Catholic resistance and pave the way for the Cromwellian settlement.

The Siege of Drogheda is one of the most traumatic events in Irish history and a powerful subject in Irish nationalist poetry. The massacre is invoked in verse as an example of Cromwellian cruelty and a symbol of the suffering of the Irish people. Poets from the aisling tradition to the 20th century have used the siege as a touchstone for the violence of English rule, and its memory has fueled republican sentiment for generations.