The Irish people have a nation of their own for almost 80 years. That was not always so. for 800 years the Irish people have been opressed by the English. The English have opressed,neglected,killed,stolen,and raped the Irish from their freedom for close to EIGHT HUNDRED YEARS!!! They have rebelled against English tyranny god knows how many times and never won. That didn't change till 1916,The Easter Rebbelion, and the war of independence. anyway I just wanted to say that not all great wars were fought in America and WE are not the people who love freedom the most

I've seen it. They potray him as a good guy but he was a cattle thief. Oh well.

There was the jacobite wars, even though they lost it was still kinda the muskets vs claymore kinda thing. You guys gotta see the movie Rob Roy! lol

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Um, they got their independence at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.

1314. Cannons make their first appearance in 1453 at the siege of Constantinople. Hence "no cannons"

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the Scottish campiagn was in the 1100's, and the Scots gained their independece.

Um, they got their independence at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. But after the death of Longshank's son they fought a little, until the Act of Union in 1707, hence "cannons and muskets."

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the picts, which were there even before the Celts.

The picts are a celtic group.

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Thats how the brits got scotland a claymore just dosen't stand up to muskets and cannons.

except that the Scottish campaign was in the 1100's, and the Scots gained their independence. It was more like "the claymore just doesn't stand up to the longbow." The UK was founded in an odd flourish of mutual cooperation.

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I was pretty sure it was the Britons

not before the Roman occupation, from whence the name "Brit-" comes.

Same thing.

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Brittish

I was pretty sure it was the Britons.

Don't refer to the English as Brits. Brittish refers to the earlyest inhabitants of the island, the picts, which were there even before the Celts. A claymore doesn't stand up to muskets and cannons? Its not that simple. Cannons were expensive in those days, and you didn't just carry a 300 pound gun around the bogs and morrass and over the highlands and into the glens. Cannons were used mostly in sieges. And the muskets? In those days a good soldier might get off about 4 shots per minute a good day. Thats if his powder was dry and a 6'3" jacobite wasn't trying to stuff a dirk down his neck or wasn't preparing to take the man's head off with an axe! But yeah, in the end, the only reasons the English did anything was because of tech. and numbers.

Thats how the brits got scotland a claymore just dosen't stand up to muskets and cannons.

Failte`dfresh!

I don't think all the fights were for freedom, at least not at first. Irish (Gaels in general, actually) have always fought. when there weren't Romans and Saxon and stuff to fight they fought each other. And they did it with little or no weapons in the early years to mock their enemies. That carried over into the 1700's when the scotts and Irish were still using dirk, sgian dubh, claighmoore, broadsword targe ect. when the English were using muskets. Because of numbers and Technology they got the upper hand on Ireland.
Oh, and geuss what! It was the largely Irish fighting the English in the American Revolution.
A Marine wanna-be friend once showed me an old painting(from Leatherneck Magazine) of two Americans (War of 1812) sipping beer of some kind before a battle. He missed entirely that one was wearing a tam and the other was wearing a glengarry.

The only reason the IRA are considered terrorist is because they don't like England. I know of the bombings etc etc. You must also know of all of those tiny IRA splinter groups. The PIRA (p stands for provisional) is the REAL one and their political party Sinn Fein is the group who proclaims peace. The group that is the infamous one is the RIRA (r stand for real).
They are the ones who bomb the shit out of everyone ( The Armagh bombings etc) I can understand how easy it would be to mix the groups up but THERE IS A DIFFERENCE. I've done a lot of research on the matter so I know what I'm talking about

The US's succesful rebellion against the british inspired the Irish to rebel in the first place it's just taken the Irish a lot longer and my ancestors and clansmen across the pond I am sad to say have not in any way fought a honorable fight they have in the long years of revlolution degraded in to terroists *cough slime cough* also the Irish have not been rebeling for 800 years they have been (pre-US revolution) loyal british subjects and had their own units in the British Army and ships in the navy.

Guess what hun, I lived in Ireland for 8 years. The United States inspired Ireland economy wise.

The United states did not inspire the Irish people. As much as I know, America didn't resist england for 800 years.The only inpiration they had was that of thier OWN DRIVE AND PASSION FOR FREEDOM

We(US) inspired open rebellion in Ireland I would explain exactly what is going on but riskbreaker(an englishman) can expain it better as it is his nation with all the trouble. I will say however I am very pleased of the cessation of hostilites by the IRA.