Ireland's Geographic Challenge

Stratfor explains how Ireland's rugged topography, lack of natural resources and proximity to the United Kingdom have helped shape the state's struggle to distance itself from British influence.

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[ROLLOVER]

in northern Ireland the the protestant/catholic population gap is only about 1 or 2 percent

[ClannCholmain]

Cork Harbour, voted in the top five most beautiful harbours in the world.
The Burren coastal drive, voted in the top five most beautiful coastal drives in the world.
An ancient culture(eg Tailteann Games, predating the Ancient Olympic Games), ancient language(Gealige), music(bagpipes) Laws(Brehan law) history(Book of Invasions, etc), mythology(Tuatha Dé Danann), artifacts, and monuments(Tara, Newgrange, etc) to rival anywhere in the world.
And, we have been voted the friendliest nation on Earth.

[memisemyself]

"Ireland's reliance on Britain" has not been the source of conflict for centuries. England's invasion of Ireland has been the source of conflict since the 12th century. There is a huge difference.

[ClannCholmain]

Ireland's greatest resource is it's people.

[evropakhan]

Ireland's geography problem is the uk..

[MarkAyt]

There is more Zinc in Ireland per square km than anywhere else in the world, and we are second for lead.

[columbannon]

Ireland has the biggest lead and zinc mines in Europe

[mickser]

Ireland is not in the British Isles. It's like saying New Zealand is in the Australian Isles. NI is not predominantly Protestant it's near half and half now.

[VivaLaPol]

Stop arguing about the stupid collective name for the islands. Completely distracts from the point of discussing Ireland's geopolitics, which is more important today than it has been for a century. It's small, low populated, militarily weak, physically divided and low on natural resources. Some benefits are that it is generally safe from mainland european military issues if they were to ever occur and it can feed it's own population without worrying about sea trade as far as food is concerned.
Unfortunately, with Brexit, if it doesn't happen in a way that the UK maintain close links to the EU (Customs union and Single Market), Ireland is stranded quite a far bit away from mainland europe geographically speaking. Most of its exports to Europe go through Britain by land. Maritime trade costs more for those distances, has limited capacity and is significantly slower when going from ports in Ireland to France. Google a map of Europe with Britain removed. Look how far Ireland is away.

Ireland's main connection, concern, ally/enemy will always be the larger, wealthier and more powerful and populated, Britain. A unified continent is and has always been a major British concern and we're not talking about just now because geopolitics policies concern potential issues decades away. Ireland will always be a back door to Britain and it won't want a strong connection between Ireland and mainland Europe to be stronger than the one it has with it. Potentially, it may also like to see Ireland remain divided between north and south. A divided landmass it has a presence on, plus a significant sized loyal population of unionists.

[TacticusPrime]

Dublin first rose to prominence as a Norse viking city-state, and has been a popular site for invaders ever since. This has more to do with its proximity to Ireland's agricultural heartland than to Britain.

[RoccosVideos]

Northern Ireland is about half Protestant and half Catholic.

[MisterPeterColeman]

Ireland's pre-famine population is normally put at between 8.5 and 9 million. Not 6.5 as you have it.
There are plenty of harbours around Ireland. Not just Dublin.
Ireland's reliance on Britain has been a source of conflict for hundreds of years?. No it hasn't. Why would Ireland have a conflict over reliance on Britain? Britain's interference in Ireland has been a source of conflict for hundreds of years. It involved murder, torture, plantation and deliberately caused famine.
Northern Ireland is not predominantly protestant. It's about 50% 50%.

[mostlyH]

Ireland was voted the best country in the world for business by Forbes. This video is poorly researched.

[jimmyryan]

Ireland isn't a british anything. its not the 1800's

[baileysarsfield]

Ireland has had the largest gold mine in the entire world in avoca, also the largest zinc and lead mines

[dilipbhai]

I like the last music in Stratfor videos Geographic challenge it sounds heavenly

[sulphuric_glue]

In the times when Ireland actually had to defend itself, it wasn't Ireland, it was a collection of Clanns, and the UK didn't exist, it was the Kingdom of England invading it. Don't say that Ireland has to defend itself against the UK. It never had to, and hopefully, it never will have to.

[mikki]

Whatever message was intended by this video was negated when the speaker referred to Ireland as the "British Isles". There are various other names attributable to the two countries in terms of its geography etc. However, the term used in this video is an affront to Ireland and the Irish nation. The British were officially supposed to desist from using this term from 1998, but they and often their American cousins still like to use it as a chauvinistic throwback to the notion of the British empire and all that it stood for - including the 150 million people slaughtered by it. So get it right. Ireland is not a British isle, it is Ireland only. The British can call their own country whatever they like, but they have no right to apply any names to our country. The unacceptable term was removed from all school maps and geography books in Ireland years ago. It is simply not the title or description of our country, and that is official.

[GavinEngel]

The same can be said about all nations, really. But I believe these geography briefs are meant to focus on general geographic features, and external military threats. So a discussion of financial threats would be outside that discussion.

[MoonThuli]

Why can't we just put all these shit between Ireland and England behind us. Obviously England (and kind of Britain in general) has fucked over Ireland quite a lot. I get that Ireland is in a difficult position with a big religious divide, separation from the rest of the EU and obviously the whole Republic and North split. But I'm British and I've still always had a fondness for Ireland. My Scottish granddad married an Irish woman and I always loved visiting the Mourn mountains, loch Erne and although I usually visited the North, I did go to Dublin once and it was a lovely city. It would be nice if we could reconcile some sort of friendship between our two island nations. I'm not saying the Republic should join the UK, or that the North should leave, but I think I speak for everyone when I say that we all want a more unified Ireland.