Some of the very 'authoritative-sounding footnotes given in this thread as to Ireland being a nation just go to show how wary one must be of history as written in all ages. "Ireland' was never a political unity and still isn't. But the people of that country, 'na Gaeil' as they referred to themselves in their own literature long before the coming of Vikings, Normans or English, most definitely saw themselves as one people with one culture which in its most expansionist periods included parts of Scotland and Wales. They never fully developed as a political unity because for centuries they were left to themselves with the luxury of having no need for combined security against an invader. Many historians now consider that Brian Boru was attempting to shape such a political entity as was happening in England around the same time (10th-11th Century AD) but he ran out of time and his successors proved unequal to the task. By the 12th Century the chance had gone.