Commonwealth and Confederation: The Alliance that never was

Fascinating snippet from Roy Johnston, in the Irish Democrat’s review of Intelligence, Statecraft and International Power:

Micheal O Siochru (Aberdeen), still in the 1640s, explores military
intelligence on land, touching on the role of Owen Roe O’Neill as a
supporter of a possible deal with the parliamentary forces based on
religious toleration, transmitted to Cromwell in London via Monck,
where it was rejected, thus nipping in the bud an early manifestation
of the idea of a progressive alliance between English democracy and
emergent Irish nationalism. (I recollect a play by Conor Farrington on
this theme, perhaps worth resurrecting.) (Irish Democrat)