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The History of Ireland in two words: Ah well.
The Invasion by the Vikings: Ah well.
The Invasion by the Normans. The Flight of the Earls, Mr Oliver Cromwell. Daniel OβConnell, Robert Emmett, The Famine, Charles Stewart Parnell, Easter Rising, Michael Collins, Γamon De Valera, Γamon De Valera again (Dear Germany, so sorry to learn of the death of your Mr Hitler), Γamon De Valera again, the Troubles, the Tribunals, the Fianna FΓ‘il Party, The Church, the Banks, the eight hundred years of rain: Ah well.
In the Aeneid Virgil tells it as Sunt lacrimae rerum, which in Robert Fitzgeraldβs translation means βThey weep for how the world goesβ, which is more eloquent than Ah well but means the same thing.
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