“Like Leinster, Ulster has its upland areas of poorer soils, the Sperrins and the mountains of Donegal. The displaced natives withdrew to these areas where tillage was still more difficult and there their nomadic habits became still more pronounced. Excessive sub-division of
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land as generation succeeded generation and the constant fear of crops being burned or otherwise destroyed in raids and war had brought about still further concentration on livestock which escaped pillage if kept on the move ... whole communities and their livestock kept
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more or less constantly on the move drifting from the protection of one lord to that of another. Nevertheless, the remarkable continuity of Irish family names - until very recently distributed in the localities occupied originally by their forebears - indicates that plans to
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shift the majority of the population were largely unsuccessful.”

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