Letters to the Editor: ‘Peace of the graveyard’ ended conflict in UK

'Wales and England were both staunchly Catholic when Edward I invaded in the mid-1200s. Scotland was almost entirely Protestant when Protestant England finally defeated them at Culloden. Did sharing the one religion spare either country its fate, prevent bloodshed and massacres?'

I read Sean O’Brien’s letter with a sense of astonishment — ‘Religious divide prevented peace’ ( Irish Examiner, November 27). Mr O’Brien writes that ‘peace was achieved’ between Scotland by the mid-18th century and between England and Wales two centuries earlier. In both instances, it was the “peace of the graveyard”: both unions were the result of military conquest by England.

The Battle of Culloden in 1746 ended Scottish ambitions to be independent of England for at least two centuries and was accompanied by disarmament and in some cases, massacres of Highland clans.