Ireland
Irish history stretches far back into the pre-Celtic and Celtic past. For centuries it evolved at its own pace, only occasionally touched by the outside world. The Roman occupation of Britain brought trade to Ireland, but otherwise left it untouched. Ireland developed its own brand of Celtic Christianity and exported it into Britain. After 800, it engaged with the Norse settlement along its east coast, but after the 12th century it was England which encroached upon Ireland. For next 800 years England and Ireland would engage in a brutal conflict for supremacy. The plantation of Ulster after 1600 poured Protestants into Ireland and worsened an already explosive situation.
