Slieve league

The British Isles are both literally and metaphorically defined by the sea. It provides both a fearsome line of defence, and an almost limitless avenue for attack: Britain has succumbed to the 11th Century Normans, held off the 16th Century Spanish and whupped the 19th Century French and 20th Century Germans (while insidiously succumbing to an influence far more ghastly and insidious from across the Atlantic). Ireland has had skirmishes with the Normans and the Vikings, but only really the English have ever properly conquered them (and that wasn't counter-productive AT ALL, was it?). But Ireland has taken, and continues to take, a right old battering from the ...  Read the complete review