Sidney, having arrived in Ireland in January…
January 1566 CE
Sidney, having arrived in Ireland in January 1566 as the new Lord Deputy, seeks to draw Clan Iain Mor, the Irish branch of the wider MacDonald federation, into an alliance against the rebel O’Neill, putting the English exactly where they had been some six years before, when Sussex was seeking an alliance with the MacDonnells.
The treaty with Shane has achieved precisely nothing beyond the temporary eclipse of Clan Iain.
Because Islay and Kintyre are far closer to Ulster than Dublin or London, there can be no solution to the problem in the north of Ireland without some kind of accommodation with Clan Donald of the Isles.