The Plantation of Ireland began during the reign of Henry VIII and continued under Mary I and Elizabeth I. It was accelerated under James I, Charles I and Cromwell. It was principally the Gaelic clans and Hiberno-Norman dynasties, whose lands were confiscatied by the Crown and then granted to colonists ("planters") from England and Scotland, this was to destroy the established order by building up English and Scotish plantaions and . nestablished in the16th and 17th century throughout Ireland by the of lands occupied by the but it was principally in Munster and Ulster. These lands were then granted

The early plantations in the 16th century tended to be based on small "exemplary" colonies. The later plantations were based on mass confiscations of land from Irish landowners and the subsequent importation of large numbers of settlers from England, Scotland and Wales.

The final official plantations took place under the English Commonwealth and Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate during the 1650s, when thousands of Parliamentarian soldiers were settled in Ireland. Outside of the Irish plantations, significant migration into Ireland continued well into the 18th century, from both Britain and continental Europe.To make room for all these economic migrants, the solution favoured by the Crown was to sell the indigenous Irish as slaves, and transport them to the Caribbean, under Cromwell between 50 and 80 thousands Irish men women and children were enslaved this way. The Crown got Ireland and made a tidy profit from its inhabitiats.

The plantations changed the demography of Ireland by creating large communities with a British and Protestant identity. These communities effectively opposed the interests of the earlier inhabitants, who had an Irish and Roman Catholic identity. The physical and economic nature of Irish society was also changed, as new concepts of ownership, trade and credit were introduced. These changes led to the creation of a British Protestant ruling class, which secured the authority of Crown government in Ireland during the 17th century.

There was an unsuccessful attempt to plant Ulster in 1569 when Sir Thomas Smith tried to bring English settlers into the Ards Peninsular and County Down. He may have made more than one attempt as another source gives his arrival date as August 1572, August was not a wise time of the year to embark upon a plantation, to survive the oncoming winter shelter is needed, food stocks are required for almost a full year until the following years crops have been planted and harvested. In 1569 Brian O'Neill burnt Movilla and other monasteries, to deprive Smith and his settlers of shelter.

The major Ulster chieftain at the time Hugh O'Neill, began a general rebellion in Ulster in 1594, the English response to this was to adopt a scorched earth policy. It was not until 1607 after the Flight of the Earls, that the plantation of Ulster began in earnest, thousands of settlers were brought to the Provence adventurers such as Annesley, (Mourne) Hill (North Down) and Montgomery and Hamilton (Ards) these men were granted large tracts of land if they brought in a specified number of settlers to their estates. Scottish settlers such as James Hamilton who brought 10,000 settlers to north western Ulster, bringing with them the language and culture of the Scottish Lowlands to the county of Down. The Hamilton and Montgomery estates shared a common boundary, the location of which appears to have been constantly in dispute, the pair eventually resorting to litigation.

In 1641 a general rebellion broke out in Ireland, this was in some way precipitated by events in England where Charles I was in conflict with his parliament, this led to civil war in England. The Irish rebellion was led by Sir Phelim O'Neill, his cousin Owen Roe O'Neill who left Ireland as a child with the 'Flight of the Earls' joined him in the struggle. The O'Neill's were the Gaelic Lords of Ulster, their dynasty founded by Nial of the Nine Hostages, in the fifth century AD. They struggled for nine years but were finally defeated when the English puritan Oliver Cromwell brought his army to Ireland in 1649 and crushed the rebellion with great ruthlessness.

A mere forty years were to pass before Ireland was to be again bathed in blood, as a result of political maneuvering in England and Europe, the consequences of the Williamite wars manifest themselves in Northern Ireland to this day, its population, victimized by history, polarized by the power struggles of egocentric Kings and Lords of three centuries past, who in war saw not the widows and orphans, they left destitute in the various theatres of conflict, their interest lying only in the perpetuation of their often corrupt regimes.

Such was the Williamite war, James II of England was deposed by his parliament, they invited William III (King Billy) of the Netherlands who was married to James daughter Mary, to become king of England. James fled to France seeking the help of Louis XIV. James realized if he could persuade mainly Catholic Ireland to rebel against the English, it would be the first step to regaining his throne. He proceeded to Ireland and convened a parliament in Dublin and announced his intension if victorious he would reinstating all the land confiscated by the English to its original Gaelic owners. Philip of Spain is reported to have said around the time of the Armada in 1588 'He who holds the key to Ireland, holds the key to England's door'; James marched his army to Londonderry where he unsuccessfully besieged the city for three months.

On August 13th.1689 Marshal Schomberg landed at Groomsport Co Down with 10,000 thousand men to defend the Williamite cause in Ireland. On Saturday 14th June 1690 William III lands with his army at Carrickfergus (Co Antrim) he marched south to Droheda in County Louth where with a superior army he defeated James at the Battle of the Boyne James left Ireland a few days later. The following year the decisive battle in the conflict took place on the 12th July at Aughrim County Galway, the Jacobite army was defeated, the battle is said to have been the bloodiest in Irish history leaving over seven thousand dead.