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Comment by immibis | Hacker News Reader

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> Ireland dislikes the UK since the UK invaded it

This was centuries before the UK. The Normans came to Ireland by invitation of Macmurphy, King of Leinster, to help him restore his power, in exchange for promises of territory. This barely counts as a conquest CB, but with certainty not as an invasion.

The Tudor conquest of Ireland involved the English and Scottish. It was before the UK existed, but was perpetrated by the constituents of the UK. At least, the ancestors of the contemporary constituents. Maybe not of Wales though, I don't know.

> Maybe not of Wales though,

The original Tudors were Welsh.

Huh, I'd totally missed that. I need to brush up on my history in this part of the world. It's way more interesting than I used to think. Thanks for that

Fwiw, in the time period you're talking about Wales was just a label for a group of English counties, each fully annexed to England like any other county. The rulers were of Welsh heritage, the Tudors being from Gwynedd in N Wales (I suspect originally Norse, possibly via Ireland).

Strangely, no 'English' people have ruled England since the latter Norman invasion.

Scotland and Wales often try to pretend they weren't part of the Empire and its horrors - in reality their were nobles/toffs/rich nobs from all across GB (at least) doing their part. Barely any of our ancestors were involved in any way other than servitude.

(My family are from both sides of the Anglo-Irish conflicts.)

This is such an interesting insight. Thank you. The part about barely any ancestors being involved apart from servitude is quite a common thread in history since empires began.

> The open border treaty was put in place because the alternative was either giving the territory back, or nonstop terrorism (look up the Irish Republican Army) until they gave the territory back.

The Common Travel Area's origins are in the the period 1923-1925[0], although it wasn't called that back then...

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Travel_Area

this is a genuinely awful description of Irish history

Speak for yourself, not the Irish.

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