[Shasown]

Originally Posted by 'Conor

in reply to *let nations walk all over us*

ehm how you invaded like half the world at one point?

I think the word should be we, after all Ireland was part of the United Kingdom and men from all over Ireland willingly took the King's/Queen's shilling. In fact some still do. At various points in history but especially during the Victorian era over 60% of the British Army was composed of Irishmen.

Some very prominent Irishmen were appointed colonial government positions and also held responsible positions in companies like the East India Company

Irishmen played a key role in the British conquest and administration of India. The Irish contribution to the making of the British Empire in India took many forms, including viceroys such as the Anglo-Irish aristocrats Lord Mayo and Lord Dufferin. In the late nineteenth century, as much as one quarter of the Indian Civil Service (ICS) was made up of Irishmen, including prominent colonial administrators such as Sir Michael O’Dwyer, the controversial lieutenant governor of the Punjab during the Amritsar massacre of 1919. In addition, Irishmen made up a large part of British military forces in India; in the mid-nineteenth century, as many as forty per cent of the East India Company’s soldiers were Irish. Finally, Irishmen played an important role in the Indian police, a service with neither the prestige of the ICS or the glamour of the Indian army, but one that in the twentieth century was of tremendous importance in the maintenance of British rule in India.
http://www.historyireland.com/volume...atures/?id=242