Jeffrey James takes a close look at the native Irish resistance to foreign invaders, from the Vikings to the Tudors.
It was as aggressors that the Irish first made their impact on European history. The quasi-legendary Irish warlord Cormac mac Airt, from the 3rd century AD, not only subdued almost all of Ireland, he also launched destructive attacks on Roman Britain. Another who did so, the following century, was Niall of the Nine Hostages.
Chronicler Gildas recorded how in the 3rd and 4th centuries there emerged from ‘the coracles that carried them across the sea-valleys foul hordes of Irish and Picts, like dark throngs of worms who wriggle out of narrow fizzures in the rock when the sun is high.’
As to why Rome neglected to occupy Ireland, along with the Highlands of Scotland and the lands east of the Rhine, the Romans could not hope to gather sufficient taxes to make long-term occupation viable. Ireland’s geographic remoteness and relative lack of sophistication saved it from the attentions of Rome’s legions. There was no Roman pattern of military occupation, road-building, and urbanisation as in the province of Britannia. The country remained a patchwork of rival tribes without centralised control.
