Why Did Rome Never Conquer Ireland? Was it Due to Boudica’s Revolt?

Hibernia, the land of winter as the Roman historian Tacitus wrote, known as Ireland today, is curious in the fact that it was never conquered by the mighty and blood-thirsty Roman Empire. But why was this?

Although it is true that some Roman writers and commanders did not seem overly bothered about conquering Hibernia, this does tell the full story.

One potential reason why Rome never conquered Ireland was due to Boudica’s revolt against the conquering Roman Empire. The story begins in 60 AD, when a Roman general named Gaius Suetonius Paulinus took 20,000 Roman soldiers and marched on the sacred Welsh Island of Mona, known today as Anglesey.

Acting at the behest of the mad Roman emperor, Nero, Paulinus sought to obliterate the “refuge for fugitives,” as Anglesey served as somewhat of a Mecca of Druidism in ancient Britain. What resulted was a slaughter. The Druids apparently met the invading Romans with chants and prayers, startling the Romans for a second, before their commander ordered them to attack.

After slaying the Druids of Anglesey, Ireland was less than 70 miles from Paulinus, just across the Irish sea, and the thought surely crossed his mind to continue to push further west. After all, the nature of Roman commanders was to conquer more and more territory for the glory of Rome. That is one key way that Roman generals made a name for themselves. Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul raised his pedigree back in Rome for instance.

At the point where Paulinus may have been dreaming of further conquest across the Sea, he received word that the Celtic queen of the British Iceni tribe had capitalised on his campaign in Wales and revolted against Roman control. As we would say in Scotland, she had an empty and she made the most it. Paulinus and his troops immediately returned to eastern England, around the Norfolk area, to suppress Boudica’s revolt, leaving any thought of Ireland behind.

20 years later, a Roman general and governor who had previously been under Paulinus’ command, called Gnaeus Julius Agricola, set his sights on Ireland once again, during the invasion of Anglesey. He arrogantly remarked that Ireland could be conquered by a single legion and a few axillaries. Agricola was said to have crossed the sea with an exiled Irish prince, according to Tacitus, the son-in-law of Agricola, and there is some evidence that Rome had a small presence on the eastern coast of Ireland for a time. This may have been in the form of a Roman bridgehead on the east coast of Ireland in Drumanagh, which is just north east of Dublin.

Despite there potentially being a small Roman military presence, and certainly a commercial one, Hibernia was never annexed into the Roman Empire, unlike large parts of Britain and Europe. Boudica’s legendary revolt may be part of the reason why.

Sources:

Irish Times - What did the Romans ever do for Ireland? https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/bo...

Hiberno-Roman relations, Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiberno...

Creative Commons Imagery:

Ad Meskens https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

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