ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on both failure and eventual redemption. It analyses the effects of the persistence of a preference on the part of British policy makers to interpret geography, as what could be interpreted as a dependent variable, a commodity that could be traded without any political or strategic consequences. The geopolitical relationship between Britain, Ireland and Europe has been systematically addressed in H. J. Mackinder's classic work, Britain and the British Seas. A preference for bargaining with respect to the British governance of Ireland had become established by 1914. To understand the importance of both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic in the Battle of the Atlantic, it is necessary to apply synthesis to two concepts. The first is the geography of warfare and the associated ideas of maritime strategy. The second is the specific geopolitical considerations that pertain to the relationship between Europe and the British Isles.
