Nature placed Ireland exactly the wrong distance from Great Britain.
Had the island been somewhat closer to its larger sister, the Irish people might well have become more fully assimilated into the British family, much as the Scots and Welsh have been. Had Ireland been placed farther out in the Atlantic, it might have been allowed to develop in relative peace, as Iceland was, with- out the incessant interference of a powerful neighbor.
As it happened, Ireland was just close enough to keep Lon-...