The fact is that the difficulties of English government in Ireland, until a complete military conquest had been effected, were of a peculiarly complex character.  Before the English could impose upon Ireland their own political organisation—­and the idea that any other system could work better among the Irish never entered the English mind—­it was obviously necessary that the very antithesis of that organisation, the clan system, should be abolished.  But there were military and financial objections to carrying out this policy.  Irish campaigns were very costly, and England was in those days by no means wealthy.  English armies in Ireland, after a short period spent in desultory warfare with light armed kernes in the fever-stricken Munster forests, began to melt away.  For many generations, therefore, England, adopting a policy of divide et impera, set clan against clan.  Later on, statecraft may be said to have supervened upon military tactics.  It consisted of attempts made by alternate threats and bribes to induce the chiefs to transform the clan organisation by the acceptance of English institutions.  But any systematic endeavours to complete the transformation were soon rendered abortive by being coupled with huge confiscations of land.  The policy of converting the members of the clans into freeholders was subordinated to the policy of planting British colonists.  After this there was no question of fusion of races or institutions.  Plantations on a large scale, self-supporting, self-protecting, became the policy alike of the soldier and the statesman.

The inevitable result of these methods was that it was not until a comparatively late date that a political conception of an Irish nation first began to emerge out of the congeries of clans.  In the State Papers of the sixteenth century the clans are frequently spoken of as ‘nations.’  Even as late as the eighteenth century a Gaelic poet, in a typical lament, thus identifies his country with the fortunes of her great families:—­

    The O’Doherty is not holding sway, nor his noble race;
    The O’Moores are not strong, that once were brave—­
    O’Flaherty is not in power, nor his kinsfolk;
    And sooth to say, the O’Briens have long since become English.

    Of O’Rourke there is no mention—­my sharp wounding! 
    Nor yet of O’Donnell in Erin;
    The Geraldines they are without vigour—­without a nod,
    And the Burkes, the Barrys, the Walshes of the slender ships.[13]

The modern political idea of Irish nationality at length asserted itself as the result of three main causes.  The bond of a common grievance against the English foe was created by the gradual abandonment of the policy of setting clan against clan in favour of impartial confiscation of land from friendly as well as from hostile chiefs.  Secondly, when the English had destroyed the natural leaders, the clan chiefs, and attempted to proselytise their adherents,