DBWI: Protestant England and Catholic Ireland

Historically England remained Catholic while Ireland became Protestant, what if it had been the opposite way around? The question is how do we get this from a POD after 1169, after all England had no reason to abandon Catholicism while the Irish were always seperate from Rome (leading to the Laudabiliter which also makes Ireland staying Catholic far more unlikely) and many Irish people claim that they were the world's first Protestants.

Would a Catholic Ireland be able to successfully gain their independence in the 16th or 17th centuries with the help of France or Spain? If not how would an Irish diaspora in the likes of France, Spain or Austria instead of Sweden and Brandenburg-Prussia affect Europe?
 
Hmm,maybe have one of the godwinson Kings fall out big time with the pope,after all they had a few minor skirmishes otl,especially when William of Normandy got the Popes support to conquer England in 1066 and lost.
 
Not sure - Irish Protestantism is so deeply rooted in the national culture that it's difficult to imagine it going another way. The religious independence of the Irish goes back a long way - you could argue that the pagan roots of Irish Christianity still inform it to this day - and Ireland was of course the safe haven that many of the more radical Protestant thinkers such as Kalvyn and Ladrik fled to. I'd go so far as to say that modern Protestantism would be unrecognisable without a Protestant Ireland.

As for a Protestant England, though, that's more plausible. I'm not convinced that it could be done just with a quarrel between a Godwinson king and the Pope - the House of Godwin lost the throne in 1504 after the Battle of Farnham, which leaves quite a narrow window between the birth of Protestantism and the fall of the Godwins for this falling-out to take place - but maybe a weaker House of Lanberg would be less able to suppress the Protestant rebels in the north during the Tyne Rebellion?
 
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