Confederated Republic of Eire and Alba

[DeSchaine]

History:

With the decline of Anglo-Norman rule after the Black Death of the 1300's, and infighting in the mid 1400's among the Anglo-Frankish rulers, the Republic of Ireland and Scotland was very much left to her own devices. Gaelic language and customs began to dominate the region as the foreign influence and rule in the regions diminished.

In Alba, Irish aid in the Scottish War for Independence did not go unnoticed. After the execution of William Wallace in 1605 and a serious defeat at the Battle of Methven, Robert the Bruce retreated from Alba to regroup. It is not known exactly where he spent the winter of 1306-07, but Eire is certainly not outside the realm of possibility. It was certainly with Irish help that Robert and his brothers landed their forces on the south west coast and began their campaign. This culminated in the major Scottish victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. The clans had, by this time, learned to not trust the lords and nobles, so that when Robert tried to declare himself king, he was deposed by a council of the clans who then went on to sign the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton in 1328.

The clans realised the need for a centralised authority to protect them from further English treachery, and divided the clan areas into counties, requiring each to elect members to the newly formed Parliment of Alba in 1331. Near the end of 1348, the plague made its way to Scotland from England and began its devistation. On the heels of that came the English break of the 1328 treaty. They managed to capture a large area from Dumfries to areas north of Newcastle, including the Isle of Man. Even in their weakened state, the Scots managed to rally and stop the invasion, but could not retake the territory lost. Being near the beginning of the Hundred Years war, though, the English forces could not commit to a full scale invasion and a stalemate ensued.

In Eire, foreign controlled lands eventually shrank to an area around Dublin known as the Pale. This started in 1261 with the defeat of the Normans at the Battle of Callann. It continued on with the help of Scottish troops when Edward Bruce landed with 6000 men at various points between Larne and Glendrum. This was to help the Bruce family allies the Ó Néill clan. The campaign did not end well, however, as Edward was killed in 1318 at the Battle of Faughart. In 1348, the plague hit Eire, and devastated the English lords and nobles, who mostly lived in towns and villages. They fared far worse than the native Irish, who lived in more dispersed rural areas. This further diminished English control. By late 1521 however, skirmishes had been ongoing in several clan border areas, and full blown civil war among the clans threatened to break out at any time.

In order to stave off the pending conflict, the heads of Clans Burke and O'Neill came together and called a meeting of the Clans at Tara, Co. Meath. Tara is the historical place where the High Kings of Eire were crowned, and following tradition, the head of each Clan there placed his feet on the Lia Fail (Stone of Destiny) to see if one worthy of being the High king was among them. When there was no reaction to any of the leaders, they fell into discussions and arguments. For several weeks the negotiations went on, before all agreed to the formation of a governing Council of the Clans to oversee interprovincial affairs. In early 1522 the Council adopted the Earraí Coimhdeachta (Articles of Confederation) and the Confederated Republic of Ireland was born.

Owing to their close cooperation during the battles in each others lands, Alba and Eire kept close relations for many years, all the while keeping a watchful eye on the happenings in England. With the Peace of Chelmsford in 1638 ending the English civil war, and the creation of the new Kingdom of York, the respective leadership of Eire and Alba reached out and began discussions for alliance. Midway through, though, the idea was proposed by Tòmas clan Campbell of Argyll that the two nations shared much more than just spilling blood in the same battles. His pointing out elements of shared history, familial kinship and a closely related system of rule led to agreement that the two nations should merge into a single Gaelic nation. After going back and getting both councils to agree, the best parts of both systems of rule were agreed upon, and Scotland was added to the Confederated Republic.

In 1641, bowing to the need for a single voice to represent the United Provinces to the rest of the world, the Council elected Maodhog Mac Cú Uladh as the first Uachtarán na Poblacht. In his first term, Mac Cú Uladh was forced to deal with public outrage over the Massacre of Dijon, where Oliver Cromwell of the Commonwealth of England and France violently supressed a Catholic uprising by executing thousands. The Republic joined Spain and Austria in the ensuing intervention.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Irish joined the rest of the world in exploration and colonization of new lands. Commodore Grace O'Malley led three expeditions to North America where sizable colonies were settled. The area was named Brendanland in honor of St. Brendan the Navigator and became home to farming and forestry communities. To the south, Afraic colonies concentrate on mining and more farming. In Central America, Irish explorers and settlers landed along a section from Bragman Aill (Puerto Cabezas) to Oileán na gCilliún (Isla Portillos) in the south. Here too, agriculture and mining are the main exports of the colony. To facilitate stable shipping routes, and to maintain a deterrant presence in the region, Ireland took possession of two islands in the western Caribbean, Doiminice and Barbado.

These colonies were the main reason that many Irish survived the "Great Frost" that virtually paralized Europe between December 1739 and September 1741. The crops, especially potatos, from the 1739 harvest were frozen and rendered inedible. The extreme cold, and addition of little to no rainfall in the spring of 1740, destroyed much of the tillage crops and left cattle and sheep dead in the fields. Low tempurtures and extended drought led to a miserable harvest in the fall of 1740, and was compounded further by another colder then normal winter. Food prices rose to unheard of highs and food riots broke out across the country.

Crops from the colonies finally arrived in great quantities starting in the mid summer of 1741, and food prices finally began to fall. The harvest of that year was mixed, but the food crisis was over. The next two years would see harvests of rare plenty for the country. In folk memory however, the time is reffered to as "Bliain an Áir," meaning the Year of Slaughter.

(All here is part of a WIP)