> What do you mean “rightfully”? <
That’s a good question. By that I meant the Irish have the right to be left alone, and decide their own future. Oliver Cromwell disagreed with that, and so the misery began.
And you do make a good point regarding the European Union. The Irish threw off the yolk of the British Empire, only to accept the yolk of the EU. Crazy.
I dunno. If I could glimpse into Europe 75 years from now, I suspect I’d see many wonderful cultures bowing and scraping before political correctness. And the strings will be pulled by the most disciplined group in Europe, the Muslims.
Cromwell certainly was no saint, but neither were the Irish forces that engaged in war with him. What happened in Drogheda had lots of bad repercussions in England for Cromwell too.
Remember that the union with Britain really started under Henry II, when the king of Leinster, Dermot McMurrough, swore allegiance to him and two successive popes recognized the English king as “Lord of Ireland”. And right after that, the Norman nobleman Richard “Strongbow” Fitzgilbert engaged in holy war against the remaining pagan holdouts on Irish soil. It never was really about the Irish being “left alone”.
::The Irish threw off the yolk of the British Empire....::
~~~~~
And wound up with egg on their faces....?