Agnosticism IS the most dishonest position

[Pat Mustard]

Actually the problems in the north are a mite older than Billy the Butcher.  Their direct primary cause was the Ulster Plantations of 1607, under James VI & I.  Billy the Butcher casued separate problems endemic to the whole of Ireland, largely by the endemic economic destruction caused by his war in Ireland and the attendant mass murder of the Irish and by the submitting the rule of the country directly to the whim of Westminster.

What's stopping you going back to the Statutes of Kilkenny 1366 or the imposition of English law on Ireland in 1495? If you're going back centuries any date and wrong is ultimately arbitrary.
You may as well date it from Henry II's conquest of Ireland in 1171.

Hey it's not my fault that English rule in Ireland was an unmitigated disaster from the creation of the Pale onwards. And the reason why I chose the Plantations was because it was the first time that a systematic attempt was made to purge the Irish from Ireland and replace them with English settlers.

But hey, why look at the truth of the matter when you've got a big brush and lots of whitewash?