Why did Rome never invade Ireland? 🇮🇪

Rome couldn't even conquer Scotland ("Caledonia"), never mind Ireland.

Didn't they think that Britain was already a step too far

Dáibhí banging out the old hits here! I had him for a semester in Galway in the early 2000s and one of the few things that stuck with me was his reasoning that Irish roads have traditionally been bad because the Romans never took us over!

Imagine you are in a forest surrounded by hectares of native trees, the branches of each tree intertwined with the next, now imagine if that forest was the size of Ireland itself. Did the romans have the men to spare to clear it? A massive project that took the english decades.

The answer may lie in another question. Why did Rome invade Britain?

When I researched ancient/medieval Ireland for my book (set in 1166) it was fascinating to learn how differently Ireland grew up, both culturally and physically, than the rest of Europe because they’d never been occupied by Rome.