When in Dublin... *hiccup*

Name: M’name’s Aidan O’Neil!

Representative of: I represent Ireland... The island. The whole thing.

Gender: With a name like mine, I understand yer asking. male.

Age: I am a grand total of 1523 years old, and I only look 20!

Brief personality: Hmm. I suppose that I can ‘ave a bit of a temper sometimes, but I am nice to most ‘veryone, I am! U-Unless they’re Vikings. I don’t like Vikings. Oh! I am sometimes considered an alcoholic. That’s not true though. My friends just don’t know how to have a good time! O-Oh, there I go again. I sometimes like to… prank people, and quite often use my Magic to do it. Oh yeah! That’s another thing! I am very… Proficient, when it comes to using magic. I like to think that Artie learned by watching me, but I could be wrong. I don’t really remember. I can tend to be quite sarcastic, and I make fun of people a lot. I don’t do it as an insult! I promise! I do it as a joke! Alright? Hmm, I also sometimes have a tendency to curse a lot, and I like to get new things. Another thing! I am one of the laziest people I know. I also am not the greatest with remembering things.

Brief physical description: I’ll have you know, I am the most attractive woman alive! Just kidding! Just kidding! I am too lazy to keep my hair kept, so it always ends up a bit messy. I like to keep it at pretty much shoulder length or longer. My hair’s also Red, and I have freckles and pale skin as a result of it! Sometimes, I might wear a 4 leaf clover in my hair here. Anyways… Uhh, I am short. I am only about… 5 feet and 5 inches, if I remember the American system. I am still a bit skinny because of the potato famine, but I’m getting better! Oh! I have green eyes! And I weigh about 110 lbs. I wear pretty much anything I can find in the morning.

Brief history: Well, in the year of 432, a man named Patrick arrived in Ireland. Patrick was probably born about 390 or 400. He lived in Western England until he was captured by Irish raiders at the age of 16 and was taken to Ireland as a slave. Patrick was forced to work as a herdsman and so had much time for thinking about religion. After 6 years as a slave Patrick managed to escape back to England.
However he had a vision in which he read a letter asking him to come to Ireland. This he did. Patrick became a missionary to Ireland until his death in 461.
Patrick tried to organize the church in Ireland along 'Roman' lines with Bishops as the leaders. However the Irish church soon changed to a system based on monasteries with Abbots as the leaders.
From 500 to 800 was the golden age of the Irish church. Many monasteries were founded across Ireland and soon the Irish sent missionaries to other parts of Europe such as Scotland and Northern England. Irish monks also kept alive Greek-Roman learning during the Dark Ages. In Irish monasteries learning and the arts flourished. One of the greatest arts was making decorated books called illuminated manuscripts. The most famous of these is the Book Of Kells, which was probably made at the beginning of the 9th century. However this golden age ended with the Viking raids.
The Vikings first attacked Ireland in 795. They looted monasteries. They also took women and children as slaves. However the Vikings were not only raiders. They were also traders and craftsmen. In the 9th century they founded Ireland's first towns, Dublin, Wexford, Cork and Limerick. They also gave Ireland its name, a combination of the Gaelic word Eire and the Viking word land. In time the Vikings settled down. They intermarried with the Irish and accepted Christianity.
Around 940 the great High King Brian Boru was born. At that time the Danes had conquered much of the kingdom of Munster. Brian defeated them in several battles. In 968 he recaptured Cashel, the capital of Munster. After 976 Brian was king of Munster and in 1002 he became the High King of Ireland. However in 1014 Leinster, the people of Dublin and the Danes joined forces against him. Brian fought and defeated them at the battle of Clontarf on 23 April 1014, although he was killed himself. This victory ended the Viking threat to Ireland.
During the 11th and 12th centuries the church in Ireland flourished once again. In the early and mid 12th century it was reformed. Synods (church meetings) were held at Cashel in 1101, at Rath Bresail in 1111 and Kells in 1152. The church was reorganized on diocesan lines and bishops became the leaders rather than Abbots. However Pope Adrian IV (actually an Englishman called Nicholas Breakspear) was not satisfied. He was determined to bring the Irish church to heel. In 1155 he gave the English king, Henry II, permission to invade Ireland to sort out the church.
However Henry did not immediately invade Ireland. Instead Dermait MacMurrough, the king of Leinster, brought events to a head. In 1166, another king, Tiernan O'Rourke forced MacMurrough to flee from Ireland. However MacMurrough appealed to the English king Henry II for help. Henry gave him permission to recruit in England. MacMurrough enlisted the support of a man named Richard FitzGilbert de Clare (better known as Strongbow) to help him regain his kingdom. In return MacMurrough promised that Strongbow could marry his daughter and would become king of Leinster after him.
MacMurrough returned to South Leinster in 1167. The first English soldiers arrived in 1169. They landed at Bannow Bay in County Wexford and soon captured the town of Wexford. The High King, Rory O'Connor led an army against the English but Dermait came to terms with him. He agreed to submit to O'Connor as High King.
However the next year, 1170, Strongbow led an army to Ireland and captured Waterford and Dublin. Askluv the king of Dublin sailed away. However the next year he returned with a Norwegian army but some English knights sallied out on horseback and defeated them. Askluv was captured and executed. Next Rory O'Connor led an army to Dublin and laid siege to the town. However the English slipped out and made a surprise attack, routing the Irish.
Henry II became alarmed that Strongbow was becoming too powerful and ordered all English soldiers to return to England by Easter 1171. Strongbow made Henry an offer. He agreed to submit to king Henry and accept him as Lord if he was allowed to continue. Henry decided to accept the offer on condition he could have the towns of Dublin, Waterford and Wexford. In the meantime Dermait died and Strongbow became king of Leinster. The English king Henry landed in Ireland in October 1171. Strongbow submitted to him. So did most of the Irish kings. In 1175 Rory O'Connor submitted to Henry by the treaty of Windsor.
In the early 13th century the English extended their control over all of Ireland except part of Connacht and Western Ulster. The English also founded the towns of Atheny, Drogheda, Galway and New Ross. The first Irish parliament was called in 1264 but it represented only the Anglo-Irish ruling class.
However after 1250 the English tide ebbed. In 1258 Brian O'Neill led a rebellion. The rebellion failed when O'Neill was defeated and killed in 1260. However the English landowners were gradually absorbed into Irish society. Many of them intermarried and slowly adopted Irish customs. In 1366 the Kilkenny Parliament passed the Statutes of Kilkenny. The Anglo-Irish were forbidden to marry native Irish. They were also forbidden to speak Gaelic or to play the Irish game of hurling. They were not allowed to wear Irish dress or ride bareback but must use a saddle. However all such attempts to keep the two races separate and distinct failed.
In 1315 the Scots invaded Ireland hoping to open up a second front in their war with the English. Robert the Bruce's brother led the Scottish army with considerable success and was even crowned king of Ireland. However the English sent an army to oppose him and he was defeated and killed in 1318.
In 1394 the English king Richard II led an army to Ireland to try and re-assert English control. The Irish submitted to him but promptly rebelled once he had left. Richard returned in 1399 but he was forced to leave due to trouble at home. From then on English control continued to wane until by the middle of the 15th century the English only ruled Dublin and the surrounding 'Pale'.
Henry VII (1485-1509) tried to bring Ireland to heel. In 1494 he made Sir Edward Poynings Lord-Deputy of Ireland. In 1495 Poyning persuaded the Irish parliament to pass 'Poyning's Law' which stated that the Irish parliament could only meet with the permission of the English king and could only pass laws previously approved by the king and his ministers.
Henry VIII (1509-1547) continued his father's policy to trying to bring Ireland under his control but he adopted a 'softly, softly' approach of trying to win over the Irish by diplomacy. In 1536 the Irish parliament agreed to make Henry head of the Irish Church. In 1541 the Irish parliament agreed to recognize Henry VIII as king of Ireland.
Under Henry's son Edward VI (1547-1553) English policy hardened. The English undertook military campaigns against Irish chiefs in Laois and Offaly who refused to submit to the king. They then made the first attempt to 'plant' loyal English people in Ireland as a way of controlling the country. Land confiscated from the Irish was given to English settlers. However in the face of attacks from the Irish the English colonists were forced to abandon the 'plantation'.
After Edwards death his sister Mary (1553-1558) became queen. She carried out the first successful plantation of Ireland. Again people were settled in Laois and Offaly but this time they were better prepared for war.
Further plantations took place under Elizabeth (1558-1603). From 1579 to 1583 the Earl of Desmond led a rebellion against the English. When the rebellion was finally crushed much of the land in Munster was confiscated and was given to English colonists.
Then in 1592, Elizabeth founded the first university in Ireland, Trinity College, Dublin.
Finally in 1593 rebellion broke out in Ulster. Hugh O' Neill the Earl of Tyrone, joined the rebellion in 1595. At first the rebellion was successful. The rebels won a victory at Yellow Ford in 1598. However O'Neill was severely defeated at the battle of Kinsale in 1601. The rebellion ended in 1603.
After the rebellion O'Neil was, at first, treated leniently. He was allowed to return to his land. However after 1605 English attitudes hardened. In 1607 Hugh O'Neil and Rory O'Donnell, the Earl of Tyrconnell, fled to France with their supporters. This event became known as the flight of the Earls.
Afterwards their land in Ulster was confiscated by King James who decided on a plantation of Ulster. This time the plantation was to be far more thorough. This time Protestant settlers would outnumber the native Irish. Between 1610 and 1613 many English people and Scots settled in Ulster on confiscated land. Many new towns were founded.
The native Irish resented the plantation and in 1641 Ulster rose in rebellion and massacres of Protestants occurred.
In the South in 1642 the Anglo-Irish and the native Irish formed an alliance called the Confederation of Kilkenny. They quickly took over all Ireland except Dublin and some other towns and part of Ulster. Meanwhile in England civil war was raging between the English king and parliament so Ireland was largely left to its own devices for several years. However divisions between the Anglo-Irish and the native Irish weakened the rebellion. Moreover the English civil war ended in 1646. King Charles I was executed in January 1649. Afterwards the English parliament turned its attention to Ireland.
Oliver Cromwell was determined to crush Irish resistance and impose Protestantism on Ireland. He also sought revenge for the massacres of 1641. When Cromwell captured Drogheda in 1649 the defenders were massacred. A similar massacre took place in Wexford. Cromwell left Ireland in 1650 and his Son-in-law took over. By 1651 all of Ireland was in English hands.
In 1653-1654 another plantation took place. Land belonging to Irish Catholics was confiscated. Those who could prove they had not taken part in the rebellion of 1641 were given other (less fertile) land west of the Shannon. The confiscated lands were given to Englishmen.
In 1660 Charles II became king of England and Scotland. At first it looked as if he would undo the Cromwellian confiscation of Irish land. However the king did not, fearing a backlash among his own people.
Furthermore during the 1660s the export of cattle from Ireland to England was banned. Yet exports of meat and butter boomed. The population of Ireland also rose rapidly in the late 17th century. English merchants also resented competition from the Irish wool trade. Labor costs were lower in Ireland than in England and Irish wool was exported to many other countries. In 1699 the Irish were forbidden to export wool to any country except England. However the English already charged high import duties on Irish wool and there was little demand for it. So exports of Irish wool were effectively ended.
In 1685 a Catholic, James II, succeeded Charles II. The Irish hoped James would treat them more kindly but he was deposed in 1688 and fled to France. The Dutchman William of Orange and his English wife Mary were invited to come and rule in James's place.
However James was not willing to give up his crown so easily. The Lord-Deputy of Ireland, the Early of Tyrconnell was still loyal to him. So were most of the Irish. In March 1689 James landed at Kinsale and quickly took most of Ireland.
Derry was one of the few places that stood by William. In December 1688 Catholic troops attempted to enter but 13 apprentice boys shut the gates against them. In April 1689 James laid siege to Derry and his men laid a boom across the River Foyle to prevent supplies reaching it by water. However in July a ship called the Mountjoy broke the boom and relieved the town.
William's army landed in Ireland in August 1689 and on 1 July 1690 the two armies met at the battle of the Boyne near Drogheda. James was decisively defeated. William entered Dublin on 6 July 1690. The next year his army lay siege to Limerick. That town surrendered in October 1691. The Treaty of Limerick ended the war in Ireland. Aaand THAT is all I am goin’ to say right now.

Religious affiliation: Catholic.

Any special powers or abilities: I’ve got quite a lot of powers! Too many to list! Any other questions?