Ireland under English rule: a colony or a burden?

"Although formally part of the same state, [Ireland after the Act of Union] was not and could not have been ruled in the same fashion as Great Britain". The Act of Union had aimed to lessen the threat of Ireland being used to launch a military attack on Britain. It had aimed to uphold the privileged position of the colonists' descendants, the landed Protestant ascendancy; and it had meant that Ireland could be governed from …

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