The Axiom of Strong Condensation, first introduced by Woodin in [14], is an abstract version of the Condensation Lemma of L. In this paper, we construct a set-sized forcing to obtain Strong Condensation for H(ω2). As an application, we show that “ZFC + Axiom of Strong Condensation + ”is consistent, which answers a question in [14]. As another application, we give a partial answer to a question of Jech by proving that “ZFC + there is a supercompact cardinal + any ideal on ω1 which is definable over H(ω2) is not precipitous” is consistent under sufficient large cardinal assumptions.

We show that MRP + MA implies that ITP(λ,ω2) holds for all cardinal λ ≥ ω2. This generalizes a result by Weiβ who showed that PFA implies that ITP(λ, ω2) holds for all cardinal λ ≥ ω2. Consequently any of the known methods to prove MRP + MA consistent relative to some large cardinal hypothesis requires the existence of a strongly compact cardinal. Moreover if one wants to force MRP + MA with a proper forcing, it requires at least a supercompact cardinal. We also study the relationship between MRP and some weak versions of square. We show that MRP implies the failure of □(λ, ω) for all λ ≥ ω2 and we give a direct proof that MRP + MA implies the failure of □(λ, ω1) for all λ ≥ ω2.