One fact about Ireland really surprised me when I first came across it, & shifted my view of the vexed question of Anglo-Irish relations, at least a little bit
I for one was accustomed to think of Poor Little Ireland oppressed by Big Bad England. And during my lifetime, at least until the most recent waves of migration, this has been true. In the early 1990s Ireland (the whole island) had only about one tenth of the number of people compared to England (In very round terms, 5m v 50m)
But in 1801 the population of Ireland was two thirds that of England - 6 million v 10 million. Even in 1851 it was a half. So the relative scale, or burden, of relief for the famine, meant that crudely, 2 people in England needed to support 1 in Ireland
The interesting questions are first, how did the population of Ireland manage to keep pace with that of England up to 1800 – in terms of population density, the two countries were the same. But then why did growth in England take off – helped in no small part by migrations from abroad as well as from the Celtic fringe
