Old English historian Richard Stanihurst (1547-1618) lamented that "When their posteritie became not altogither so warie in preserving, as their ancestors have been valiant in conquering, the Irish language was free dennized in the English Pale: this canker tooke these deep root, as the bodie that just before was full and sound, was by minor and little festered, and in manner wholly putrified". How about the language component?