jslarkin

What if I said that the Partition of Ireland was a deal, a handshake between the British and American governments, that saw the latter gaining control of the 26-counties that were the provinces of Munster, Leinster, Connaught, and three of the counties that made up the province of Ulster.

Those 26-counties became known, and still are, as ‘The South’ or ‘The South of Ireland‘ or as The Free-State. Britain, in turn, having received ‘the other SIX counties remaining of Ulster‘ renamed them as Northern Ireland.

Now, pay attention, because this is where it can become tricky. County Donegal is the Most Northern County on the Island of Ireland, yet, it is in The South, if you don’t believe me look at the maps, and that wee place known as Northern Ireland sits on the North East of the Island, but it is NOT a country. It is though part of the Island of Ireland.

So, how come the Yanks and the Brits, didn’t apportion Ireland in a more balanced way?

Well, that’s because those ‘Six counties known as Northern Ireland‘ had a majority of people with an English affiliation, people descended from the ‘Planters’ who came to Ireland under the command of a murdering bastard known as Chichester the Pirate. A man, who with his cruel army not only starved the Irish indigenous people to death, your talking whole families in their homes, children, babies. However, sometimes they didn’t bother about starving them and burned them alive.

This was the original Scorched Earth Policy, and the planters rewarded with the choice of Irish Land, leaving those who owned it, with nothing, and like those Irish people before them, who escaped Ireland in times of other murderous assaults conducted by Cromwell’s army, and the ‘Starvation of the People called a Famine, they left for places in Scotland, America, Canada, and many portside towns in England.

That’s why there are so many surnames synonymous with Ireland, throughout England, and would go as far as to say that those of Irish descent in England probably outnumber those Irish on the Island of Ireland. Which is why the people of England and Ireland have more in common than they actually appreciate, and maybe it’s time to build upon that.