I suggest that the edict Divide and Rule has its source in a higher authority than the English Crown. A mosaic of varied local environments and inter-tribal feuds were realities which the English political manipulation could exploit but could hardly create. (p.8.)
Whereas the English saw nothing but barbarism and obscurity in Ireland before the coming of the Anglo-Normans, the Irish cherished their ancient literature, and the pseudo-history of the annals was uncritically espoused by romantic nationalists such as the new Irelanders; and, astonishingly, it long remained the standard textbook version of early Irish history and has kept alive dangerous passions of pride and hatred .. it is hard for the Englishman to comprehend the Irishmans view of the past, for all time appears to be foreshortened into the living present [8].
[Quotes R. L. Praeger:] We Irish ... can never let the past bury its dead. Finn McCoul and Brian Boru are still with us ... the Battle of the Boyne was fought last Thursday week, and Cromwell trampled and slaughtered in Ireland towards the latter end of the preceding month. (n. source; 8.)
A ring of uplands encircles a great part of Ireland, often ending in spectacular sea-cliffs ... (p.8.).
Further, While one might suppose that the predominance of lowland would have faciliated communication and integration - for all the uplands put together would not cover more that one-eight of the island - the largest (central) lowland is in no sense a meeting-place: it is imperfectly drained by the mighty Shannon and strewn with a profusion of lakes and bogs that have impeded movement. The Central Lowland thus never became a seat of political power, and the centrally placed Athlone became a major communication centre only when it was given the freedom of the air through Radio Eireann. (p.8.)
The central lowland might have been a means of contact between the inhabitants of early Ireland. Instead they were a means of division, being broken up by spurs of mountain and large areas of impassable bog. Except in a few favoured areas, agriculture has counted for less than stock-raising. [caption to ill.] (pp.10-11.)
A great swarm of drumlins - one of the largest in the world - traverses Ireland in a broad loop from south Co. Donegal to Co. Down, representing the dumping of glacial clay and boulders as the ice-sheets tumbled from the Ulster uplands towards the Central lowland. Archaeologically, this difficult border country was late opened up to settlement, and had much to with the historical isolation of the province of Ulster from the rest of the island. (p.13.)
[Refers to:] the Farewell State (p.14); remarks on raised bogs and blanket bogs (p.14.)
I suspect that alcohol has long been one of the ingredients of Irish wit and Irish bellicosity. (p.14.)
[L]egends grew around every element in the environment, whether natural or man-made, and as might be expected there is a wealth of lore associated with the milch-cow. (p.15.)
in general early Irish art is abstract and non-representational, and characterised by a superstitious horror vacui. (p.15.)
It is doubtful if the poverty of folk art as compared with that of most other parts of Europe can be attributed to the evil effects of conquest and the social submergence of the native people. Rather, the genius of the Irish has been expressed in spiritual forms, above all in poetry and the cultivation of conversation and storytelling as a fine art. (p.15.)
Sexual repression has been seen by some critics as partly responsible for such varied traits as the prevalence of alcoholism, the fondness for intrigue and mischief-making, the sadism evidenced in the harsh treatment of animals and the appalling acts of violence committed in the name of political ideologies; but it must be said that these characteristics were all commented on long before the devotional revolution. (p.17.)