- Since its very origins the island has become the home for successive series of invaders - the Celts, Christians, Vikings, Normans. It was in the Tudor era that Ireland was made the first colony of the English Empire with the Plantation projects of Henry VIII and had been in an uneasy and often brutal relationship with England. The island"s story is scarred with Cromwell"s raids, William III"s suppressions, the rising of Wolf Tone, the devastations of famine, the long, vicious road to Independence.