Editing Kingdom of Ireland (section)

==Ethnic conflict==
{{unreferenced section|date=February 2023}}
[[File:PRENDERGAST(1870) p 415 Map of the Settlement of Ireland by the Act of 26th September, 1653.jpg|thumb|After [[Oliver Cromwell|Cromwell]]'s victory, huge areas of land were confiscated from the [[Gaelic nobility of Ireland|Gaelic nobility]] and the [[Irish Catholics]] were banished to the lands of [[Connacht]].]]
The legacy of the Kingdom of Ireland remains a bone of contention in [[Irish-British relations]] to this day because of the constant ethnic conflict between the native Irish inhabitants and primarily the new Anglo-Irish settlers across the island. Their background espoused [[English culture]] (law, language, dress, religion, economic relations and definitions of land ownership) in Ireland as it later did across much of what was to become the British Empire. However [[Gaelic culture]] and [[Irish language]], was maintained to a significant extent by the majority of the original native population. Sometimes this was presented as "barbaric", "savage" which later was perceived by the native population as a mark of undesirability in respect of maintaining and learning the language. While the [[Lordship of Ireland]] had existed since the 12th century and nominally owed allegiance to the English monarchy, many kingdoms of [[Gaelic Ireland]] continued to exist; this came to an end with the Kingdom of Ireland, where the whole island was brought under the centralised control of an Anglo-centric system based in [[Dublin]]. This phase of Irish history marked the beginning of an officially organised policy of [[settler colonialism]], orchestrated from [[London]] and the incorporation of Ireland into the [[British Empire]] (indeed Ireland is sometimes called "England's first colony"). The theme is prominently addressed in Irish [[postcolonial]] literature.

The religion of the native majority and its clergy – the [[Catholic Church in Ireland|Catholic Church]] – was actively persecuted by the state. A set of [[Penal Laws against Irish Catholics|Penal Laws]] favoured those who adhered to the [[established church]] – the [[Church of Ireland]]. They oppressed those native Irish who refused to abjure their religion. A similar experience happened to English, Scottish and Welsh Catholics during the same period. There is some perception that during Tudor times, elements within the government at times engaged in and advanced a [[genocidal]]{{Citation needed|date=July 2019}} policy against the Irish [[Gaels]], while during the [[Plantations of Ireland]] (particularly successful in Ulster) the local population were displaced in a project of [[ethnic cleansing]] where regions of Ireland became de-Gaelicised. This in turn led to bloody retaliations, which drag on to modern times. Some of the native inhabitants, including their leadership, were permitted to flee into exile from the country following ending up on the losing side in conflicts (i.e. the [[Flight of the Earls]] and the [[Flight of the Wild Geese]]) or in the case of the [[Oliver Cromwell|Cromwellian regime]] were forced into [[Irish indentured servants|indentured servitude]] (although the same happened to English persons involved in the Cromwellian regime) in the [[Caribbean]], following mass land confiscation for the benefit of New English settlers.

On the other hand, the fact that the kingdom had been a [[unitary state]] gave Irish nationalists in 1912–1922 a reason to expect that in the process of increasing self-government the island of Ireland would be treated as a single political unit.