Oh the eighteenth century was the most glorious of all centuries for British occupation - oops, rule - in Ireland. The Irish were dispossessed from all their land (except bogland), their religon banished (legally), all their pilgrimage sites destroyed (except Lough Derg which remained open because Protestants ran the boat bringing thousands of pilgrims to the island- you couldn't invent this stuff). This was the century of the Penal Laws. Civilisation triumphed over the wilde Irishe, the superstitious, irrational popish natives. Dublin became one of the most fashionable places in Europe with Greco-Roman (oops, sorry! Georgian) architecture illuminating the once barbarous town. Yes, of course those bitter Paddies would say that no native Irish Catholics (90% of the population) were allowed in parliament and that there was in fact a British sectarian herrenvolk apartheid state in operation in 18th century Ireland... but the glory of Britain should not be undermined by those sort. Anyway, onwards to Iraq and Afghanistan for the latest selfless British experiments in civilisation! 86.42.99.141