But in their one special and characteristic task they failed lamentably.

Instead of conquest and consolidation they gave us mere invasion and disturbance.

The disastrous role played by them has been unfolded by many interpreters of history, by none with a more vivid accuracy than we find in the pages of M.
Paul-Dubois: "Had Ireland," he writes, "been left to herself she would, in all human probability, have succeeded, notwithstanding her decadence, in establishing political unity under a military chief.

Had the country been brought into peaceful contact with continental civilisation, it must have advanced along the path of modern progress.

Even if it had been conquered by a powerful nation, it would at least have participated in the progress of the conquering power.