Flight of the Earls...why all the hullabulloo?

Just wondering why we're commemerating the flight of the earls. These lads decided that enough was enough and off to Spain they went (nothing new there then). So why all the hullabulloo? Ostensibly they couldn't live under British Rule so they set of to Spain to "live to fight another day" (and didn't). I just don't see what's to celebrate or commerate. Was it not a defeat?

It was a defeat but the reason it's a big deal is that it was the death of the indigenous Irish aristocracy. In today's egalitarian Ireland this might not be seen as a bad thing but in practical terms they were the leaders and potential leaders of any fight for independence and it took generations to replace them.
It's also a very emotive story which has been romanticised for centuries and presented as a great loss to Irish history and the common Irish people. However there is no reason to assume that the tenant farmer or labourer would have faired any better under their rule than under English rule, at least in the short term.

Were they not our last link to the Celtic way of life?

Is there evidence to say they mistreated the farmers up to the time they left (were they not clansmen??)?? I'd say the locals would have preferred them over the engerlish any day - in them days it was kosher for invading powers to raze provinces to the ground !!!

Its to be commemerated not celebrated I'd say. Could they not have done a Bonny Prince Charlie on it?, give it a lash jack style. Ultimately the BPC adventure ended up in Culloden massacre but it seems they could have pushed for London before that (stopped at Derby) - what a tale.

Would it be fair to say that the flight of the earls meant that it paved the way for the Ulster plantation to take root ..... and left us with the wonderful cultural diversity we now see in Norn Iron (strictly tongue in cheek there)?

Betsy Og said:

Would it be fair to say that the flight of the earls meant that it paved the way for the Ulster plantation to take root ..... and left us with the wonderful cultural diversity we now see in Norn Iron (strictly tongue in cheek there)?

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Yes, it would. The plantation followed immediately on from the Flight of the Earls.