Looking around the net today I came across this : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Connaught. Apparently in 1798 the Republic of Connaught was declared with with French military support during the Irish Rebellion.
So just imagine if it had been successful and grew even larger, we could been speaking French instead. From Wikipedia “The republic was proclaimed following the victory of French and Irish forces at the Battle of Castlebar under the leadership of French General Humbert. The president of the Republic of Connaught was John Moore”.
But sadly “Ultimately defeated by Cornwallis at the Battle of Ballinamuck the republic ceased to exist and the Kingdom of Ireland was absorbed into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801”. 🙁 Other countries that could have been can been seen here, like poor Lajtabánság that existed for 32 days.
jebus…. and here the rest of the world is still trying to figure out the difference between the UK, GB, England, Northern Ireland, etc etc. this certainly wouldn’t have made it any easier
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_britain For info on the difference.