"Big Red" wrote in message
news:1148364839.631085.90980@j33g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Ireland, my favorite country (minus the U.S.), shall get it's taste of
> fame.
I'm proud of my Irish origins as well, but the multiple PODs you have here
put this out in ASB territory.
The Irish never had much of a trading tradition, even within the island. It
was the Viking settlers that introduced the skill to the Irish, but as they
assimilated, the Norse were somehow overcome with the "green lassitude."
The real challenge would be to provide an irresistible stimulus to drive a
surplus population off the island sometime prior to the fifth century,
abetted by a Viking-style seagoing tradition. You've got to light a fire
under the Irish that was similar to what befell the Portuguese under Prince
Henry the Navigator (intellectually) and the Puritans (emotionally).
An independent Irish church would certainly help, and it came close to
happening a couple of times. The necessary condition would be an alignment
of self-interest between anti-Roman clergy and a strong High King. Tough,
but not impossible.
Vikingimilation with preservation and expansion of marine technology
would be absolutely vital. Maybe a seaside monastery is shown a measure of
mercy by a forward-looking Viking raider. Perhaps, before burning a book
during a raid, his eye falls upon a sketch of a Roman trireme, and he then
develops a healthy fascination for classical explanations of hydraulics.
Instead of murdering everyone and torching the place, he and his successors
settle and set up the equivalent of a naval college.
Before the introduction of the potato, Ireland was not chronically
overpopulated, but wars across the Irish Sea might provide sufficient
motivation to emigrate to An tOilean Ur ("the New Island," as Irish
emigrants in OTL called America) discovered and preliminarily settled circa
1000 AD. I wonder what the Iroquois would have made of leprechauns...
Jim McCauley
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