If the Irish Clans united could they have repelled the Normans?

If the Irish Clans united could they have repelled the Normans?

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Probably not. They didn't have the kind of heavy cavalry that the Normans could bring to bear.

It was unrealistic that you could have had a centralized army back them.

Even if they united under a king, it would have been disjointed and be routed by cavalry quickly

That isn't what he asked, do you understand the concept of hypothetical?

I answered both.

Even if they were united under a King they could not have.

They could have very easily had there not been so many willing to work for the Normans. Both in the Norman conquest and the centuries after, most soldiers that fought were Irish mercenaries. There were entire battles fought between competing Norman lords where only Irish troops fought and died. As well as that during the invasion many lesser lords saw it as a great opportunity to rise up against their native masters and seize a little power and land for themselves, the fact that it would put them under foreigners mattered little. By the time all of Ireland (except Dublin) gained a shared national consciousness it was too late, the English crown took power from the Normans thus dooming the virtual independence they enjoyed.

But they did repell the Normans, without even uniting

Alfred The Great almost defeated The Normans.

Alfred the Great never fought the Normans

But they did repel the Normans. In their initial invasion the Normans swept over the entire island, but over the next 200 years they were pushed back until the only place they exercised absolute control was a portion of the east coast.

This, also the Normans were never the monocultural rubber stamp the English ended up being, they actually respected and assimilated to local culture. Also crown jealousy played a role.

>200 years
>repelled the invaders

Good heavens. Does that really count 6+ generations and 2 centuries? It doesn't sound like a very concentrated effort.

No because Irish clan leaders were notorious back stabbing bastards who constantly fought each other and betrayed thier alliances. They were so easy to manipulate they couldn't sign up to be ruled by Normans fast enough. Disgraceful period.

The Normans
>greatest military power of their age
>cutting edge tactics
>the very best in weapons and armor
>at the forefront of the development of statecraft and infrastructure

The Irish
>men in dresses with pointy sticks

honestly 200 years isn't bad

They couldn't even repel the Dublin Norse, what chance would they have against all England?

>They couldn't even repel the Dublin Norse
wot

The Irish sacked Dublin constantly, before and after Clontarf.

Yes, but why would they risk their lives in battle for the few clans that stood to lose from the invasions?

you are forgetting by that time the normans were more irish than the irish, the irish at this point were the offspring of norman knights who fell for some ginger qt and had 8 kids with her in a peat bog somewhere

>you are forgetting by that time the normans were more irish than the irish, the irish at this point were the offspring of norman knights who fell for some ginger qt and had 8 kids with her in a peat bog somewhere
what the fuck am I reading

And still the Kingdom of Dublin remained in place for three centuries.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Irish_than_the_Irish_themselves

Irish men had to sit in the corner and watch their sweethearts being bred by a Chad Norman. Not sure what is so difficult to understand about this.

No one who knows the chronology would have forgotten that.

Are you purposefully misinterpreting the phrase or is this a joke that's going over my head