Ireland

Wanted to jump in here to offer a somewhat related connection or possibility. I was intending to hang back and see how the reduced imperialism of Britain affects (or doesn't?) Ireland and Scotland. I'm playing the granddaughter of Bonnie Prince Charlie; in this era, his actions are somewhat romanticized and removed, but for Lady Catherine, they are real, and she is the one bearing the Stuart name. Might be an interesting connection if our two characters were to correspond.

I'm weaving this in because IRL, Charlie had a child (with his married first cousin!), but the baby boy died. Had he lived... this man would be Catherine's father, and her mom is Scottish. I think she'd certainly be interested in the experiences of an Irish person in the RMC and may have conflicting feelings about that... and her own heritage.

Thanks for the input all. :)

Maj Gerard St George, instructor at RMC in Buckinghamshire, reporting for duty.

The real question is, as trade/contact with the Americas was established in 1580, but by non-Europeans...

does Ireland still have the potato based staple crop system?

Adrian, just a note that my father was born in Ireland but not Catholic, attended Christ Church at Oxford and became Prime Minister. So it's totally understandable if your mom wasn't Catholic, either.

Hey, I'm also playing an Irish character! (Technically half Irish, half English but raised in Ireland.) I'd love to coordinate a bit as our characters may have at least heard of each other!

Also, thanks everyone for the clarification. This has been on my mind as well.

So therefore, is it possible for an Irish Catholic officer to be an instructor at the RMC?

So my Military history consultant has confirmed for me that Catholics could certainly serve in the Military as there were a lot of Irish Catholics in the British military at this time.

And looks like they were also allowed to serve as officers in the Irish Establishment. per this wikipedia source: "Since 1701, the recruitment of both Catholic and Protestant Irish was prohibited for the regiments on the Irish Establishment. Yet, this exclusion did not encompass the officer corps, and at the end of the eighteenth century, a third of the officers of the Irish regiments were Irish Protestants. The British Establishment was formally prohibited from recruiting Catholics, but the ban was abolished in practice in 1771, and in 1775 the Irish Establishment was allowed to recruit both Protestant and Catholic Irish.[7] Neither apprentices, or indentured servants nor coal miners were allowed to enlist. Seamen were reserved for the need of the Royal Navy.[8]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_background_of_officers_and_other_ranks_in_the_British_Army,_1750%E2%80%931815

Thanks for the information. May have to go with non-Catholic then, as Military service (Non-Naval) is kinda key to the concept thus far.

A follow up. Could a Catholic officer be an instructor at the RMC at the time?

It has yet to occur. As we begin the biggest debate in Parliament is allowing non-Anglican Christians the rights to hold office and teach at University. The big change in our timeline on that argument is that Non-Christians were granted those rights in the time of James II.

So yes a big political battle for an Irish person in this game might be them setting up protests, etc to argue for their right to sit in Parliament as an Irish Catholic

So I fully admit to having little knowledge of actual history of the time period, so forgive the use of wiki here for information.

So the game-on timeline starts in 1811. The Irish Parliament was dissolved in 1801 with the Acts of Union that made Ireland a part of Great Britain. However, Catholics would not be able to sit in British Parliament until Catholic Emancipation in 1829. Given the changes to religious strife in the setting, was this event earlier, or has it yet to occur?

Hi Adrian!

A lot of the politics in this time in Ireland are based around religious tensions between the Catholic/ Anglican churches so there isn't much change to that history in our game.

inspiration for the Rebellion of 1798 would have just been from the French Revolution and not the American (as America does not exist) but it probably still would have occurred in the same fashion in this world.