Letter: Let’s embrace our true history rather than historical fictions over who actually invaded Ireland
A letter from Professor Sarah Alyn Stacey:
I write to welcome the renewed interest in Aethelstan, the first English king of all England.
We might recall the foundation of England as a nation at Eamont Bridge on the border of Cumberland and Westmorland on July 12, 927.
Aethelstan was vindicated by his victory at Brunanburh in 937 when attacked by the Scots in alliance with the Vikings from Dublin.
The historical reality is that Ireland was not invaded by the English at all but by the Norman French who defeated Harold Godwinson (Harold II of England) at Hastings on October 14, 1066.
We have lived for centuries in the mistaken belief that the English as such invaded Ireland when Ireland was in fact invaded by Strongbow (Richard de Clare, Second Earl of Pembroke) at the invitation of Dermot MacMurrough in 1169.
It is time for us to embrace our true history rather than historical fictions.
Professor Sarah Alyn Stacey, Trinity College, Dublin