though Ireland lay too close to England for independence, unlike the other Celtic regions of Wales and Scotland, she lay just too far away for complete conquest. Though successive British kings and generals arrived in Ireland imbued with the same attitude towards the natives as that displayed by the whites towards the aborigines of both Australia and North America, insurgency – be it of native origin, or in concert with some enemy of hers, Spain or France – continued throughout the centuries to be a problem for England. Off her western approaches there now lay a green Cuba.
