The triangle linking Britain, Ireland and continental Europe has been bent into many shapes over the centuries, but one recurring pattern has been collaboration – moral or material – between the smaller island and the continent, so as to thwart or counterbalance the power of Britain.
As Irish schoolchildren still learn, generations of their forebears looked to continental Europe as a source of spiritual and practical support against the oppressor. British strategists, for their part, saw Ireland as a soft under-belly which had to be controlled firmly to prevent it being used by continental foes.
