5. England invaded Ireland numerous times between 1171 and 1690, but so too did Scotland in 1315.

The backdrop to this was the First War of Scottish Independence. The Kingdom of Scotland was in fact
an older country than the Kingdom of England, but through chicanery the English had stolen Scottish
independence and now faced a pretty successful rebellion from the Scots (they had won a stunning
victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314). Scottish warlord, soon to be undisputed King, Robert the
Bruce decided that the best way to beat the English would be to outflank them be liberating Scotland’s
Gaelic cousins in Ireland. Both Ireland and Scotland were Gaelic speaking countries at the time, they
shared many cultural customs, were ethnically related, and many families in the Western Highlands and
Islands of Scotland had relatives in Ulster (northeastern Ireland) and vice versa. Robert the Bruce sent
his younger brother Edward, who claimed to be King of Ireland and was supported in his bid to
overthrow the English and the Norman barons by many Irish clans (particularly the O’Neill). However,
the world of Irish Gaelic politics was wrought with rivalry and other Gaelic Irish clans backed the Anglo-
Norman ruling class. In the end bad luck, a famine, is probably what did the Scots-Irish Army in as they
had a harder time feeding themselves. Edward Bruce was killed at the Battle of Faughart in 1317. Robert
the Bruce would of course win the First Scottish War of Independence and English recognition of the
Kingdom of Scotland once more (Scotland and England would remain enemies until the 1500s).

One has to wonder how a Gaelic alliance, led by a Bruce dynasty, may have changed the power dynamic
of the British Isles

6. There was a British unit of the Waffen SS (Schutzstaffel or “Protective Echelon”), an ideological special
army of Nazi Germany and eventually state within a state. The so-called “British Free Corps” was made
up of several dozen POWs who either had pro-Nazis sympathies or decided to collaborate. They saw
minimal action against the invading Red Army in 1945 but that was mostly it. Their founder, British
fascist John Amery, was hanged by the British government for treason.

Shameful

7. During the 1930s a significant fascist movement emerged in the UK, the British Union of Fascists
(BUF). Founded by a young and charismatic politician from an aristocratic background, Sir Oswald
Mosley. Mosley had started his political career as a Tory MP, feuded with them, went over to the Labour
Party, feuded with them, and then decided on a trip to Italy that fascism was the ticket. He formed a
New Party, which eventually became the BUF. Surprisingly, this movement attracted tens of thousands
of members, both middle class and working class, and some support from the upper echelons of British
society. Lord Rotheremere, founder of the Daily Mail newspaper, even ran an editorial entitled Hooray
for the Blackshirts (he was under the impression that they were just youthful and vigorous Tory
nationalists; when he realised what they truly were, he ended his support). In 1936 they engaged in the
Battle of Cable Street with the Jewish, Irish and communist residents of a poor East End neighbourhood
who refused to let them march, and in 1940 this movement was banned over its pro-Nazi agitation and
its leaders arrested.