Whist not wishing to debate or defend the Norman/English and later British acts in Ireland, I would point out that the ‘native’ Irish are the descendants of the ancient Gaels/Celts, who were invaders themselves and who were the subjugators/destroyers of the Beaker Peoples who inhabited Ireland at the time.
Let’s face it, people have not been very nice to each other through history, and at one point of time or another just about every ethnic group was the victim of another.
Although I am of Irish descent, I am an American and proud of it (hence my moniker). I acknowledge the past but I am not a prisoner of it (I don’t hate the current generation of English for the sins of their ancestors against my ancestors).
The point of my post was not to rekindle old grievances but simply to point out, in response another poster’s ethnic slander, that at the time of the 1916 rebellion Ireland was still an occupied land and that the Irish had every right to try and force their occupiers to leave, whether it was a convenient time for the English or not.