But Cromwell found a different reception for his reforms when he turned to extend them to the sister island.

The religious aspect of Ireland was hardly less chaotic than its political aspect had been.

Ever since Strongbow's landing there had been no one Irish Church, simply because there had been no one Irish nation.
There was not the slightest difference in doctrine or discipline between the Church without the Pale and the Church within it.

But within the Pale the clergy were exclusively of English blood and speech, and without it they were exclusively of Irish.

Irishmen were shut out by law from abbeys and churches within the English boundary, and the ill-will of the natives shut out Englishmen from churches and abbeys outside it.