They had different national characters as strongly opposed as any two national characters in Europe.

They were in widely different stages of civilisation.

Between two such populations there could be little sympathy; and centuries of calamities and wrongs had generated a strong antipathy.

The relation in which the minority stood to the majority resembled the relation in which the followers of William the Conqueror stood to the Saxon churls, or the relation in which the followers of Cortes stood to the Indians of Mexico.
The appellation of Irish was then given exclusively to the Celts and to those families which, though not of Celtic origin, had in the course of ages degenerated into Celtic manners.

These people, probably somewhat under a million in number, had, with few exceptions, adhered to the Church of Rome.