History is full of horror stories Graham but visiting the sins of the father onto the offspring is now out of fashion. In any historic scenario, to be objective you have toexamine the attitudes and behaviours of the timeand to attempt to compare those attitudes to modern day thinking only distorts the picture. It was a brutal time but, by the canons of the day, the English actions in Ireland would have been considered rational and sensible by many involved in the decision making of the day. Tragic indeed, but understandable in the context of the day.
You could, of course, continue the theme with the English being pilloried for their attitudes to Aboriginals, Maoris, Africans even the French. Forgive me, but you sound as though you are having a pop at the English and, personally, I am happy to learn from history but I don't think most of us want to go through life apologising for it.