Actually most Irish protestants bar the scots prebyterians up north are descendants of people who converted during the time of the penal laws, the english settlers you mention mostly fled after military support for their colonies was withdrawn. And it was more a case of subjugation than immigration, the settlements and the penal laws both being introduced as a method for strengthening the crowns control of the country, Ireland having played host to a pretender to Henry VIII's crown. Nor was it really a power struggle between the holy see and church of england, the papacy has never really contested Englands claim to Ireland except during Jacobite times and even then it was the case of supporting one foreigners rule over another. And it bears little resemblence to todays situation, the plantations in Ireland were military affairs which cleared large swathes of land of their former occupants and imported a few english or scots to run them from fortified settlements. Present day immigration isnt done by force of arms.
Once again, you refer to the land-owners, not the land-workers. Yes, it was done differently, but the massive percentage of retribution wasn't taken against the people who actually commited the deeds but against peasant workers who were unfortunate enough to be in Ireland at the time. It's easy to assume that the mentality of peasants working for their landlords would be the same as the landlords themselves, just as it's easy to assume that the opinion of most Muslims would be the same as the most outspoken of their leaders. The similarities are more than you think.
The 1641 massacres were mostly commited against those totally innocent of anything other than working for people that oppressed the Irish, rather than being those who oppressed them, same with Oliver Cromwells retirbution afterwards. As always with these things, it's the grunts who take the punishment.
The Pope couldn't care less about the sovereignty of Ireland, this is true, but he most certainly cared about the advance of Protestantism in Europe, Ironically enough, Louis XIV was as obsessed with absolute power of the monarch as any English monarch, indeed, he 'created' absolutism and was almost as much at loggerheads with the Pope over the Kings right to be the centre of the Church and its related funds as Henry VIII was. This is why I find Orangemen mildly amusing.
As for the growth of Protestantism, I'll how to bow to your greater knowledge there, since I really don't have the time to research.
I dont recall saying they were english, but seeing as you brought it up these guys are 1st battalion light infantry, which is based in Paderborn, Germany. Does that mean they get their orders from Berlin? Didnt think so. They were formerly known as the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, which would make them english. Irrelevant really, the army is a tool of the government regardless of where its battalion hqs are. Battalion HQs do not draw up their own orders, they get them from the MOD, which in turn gets them from no. 10. Which seems to get its orders from the Whitehouse. Yeah technically they're British soldiers, but I think you'll find the majority of your countrymen would like it another way:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6185652.stm
The UK though is really the descendant of the kingdom of england, and the other members of the union have not always been willing participants.
It's a very nice news piece, but then, lets look at things from another point of view, for example, did you know that Arthur Balfour, one time Prime-Minister and author of the Balfour Accords was born in Scotland? I don't deny, and never would deny Scotland the right to Independence if they want it, but, just as the Duke of Wellington was born as the son of a Nobleman in Dublin, an awful lot of stuff that is blamed on England, or to be more specific, on London were, in reality, performed by members of the United Kingdom.
Yes, the Union has never really been 100% peaceful, there are very few Unions that are, but there's also a hell of a lot of Propaganda going on, it's easy to look at the worst and apply it to all of us.
Which is why most people here would attribute prior conflicts to the english, regardless of where the guy with the gun in his hands was from.
This, in itself, says it all, I think.
