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