WI: Ireland plays Japan to Rome's China?

Japan, an island nation that while outside of the zone of Chinese conquest, was able to take what it wanted from china, while still keeping a unique culture. Hibernia, an island outside of the zone of Roman conquest... See where I'm going here? Of course we'd first need to have a strong political figure to semi-unite the Celtic tribes of the reigon durring Roman times, and to adopt Roman ideas of course... Put simply, I want an Irish/Roman state. Any thoughts?
 
I'd rather suppose the British Isles as a whole as a Japan equivalent. Bear in mind that there was a fair amount of cultural influence from China in Japan (foremost, Kanji and Buddhism). So, I'd rather propose a Celtic-speaking, Latin-writing unified British Isles would be the Japan equivalent...
 
I agree, Ireland alone is not big enough. Perhaps you have a dominant Kingdom of Dalridia ruling the islands, hm? Or you could have an Arthurian line that gets treated like it's divine to deepen the parallel. Another problem for only Ireland is the lack of good land, especially for crops, there's a reason they relied so much on the potato in later centuries. I think a japanese-esque british isles when compared to rome would be a very interesting TL, any takers?
 
I agree, Ireland alone is not big enough. Perhaps you have a dominant Kingdom of Dalridia ruling the islands, hm? Or you could have an Arthurian line that gets treated like it's divine to deepen the parallel. Another problem for only Ireland is the lack of good land, especially for crops, there's a reason they relied so much on the potato in later centuries. I think a japanese-esque british isles when compared to rome would be a very interesting TL, any takers?
OTL?

An island off the coast of a much more civilized state that's heavily culturally influenced by it, including adopting the writing system and a large amount of vocabulary... then becoming a major naval power, becoming more and more influential in Continental affairs and building a substantial Empire, but then losing it? I mean, it's not perfect admittedly (and doesn't really fit the original post since England isn't Celtic but Germanic)
 
OTL?

An island off the coast of a much more civilized state that's heavily culturally influenced by it, including adopting the writing system and a large amount of vocabulary... then becoming a major naval power, becoming more and more influential in Continental affairs and building a substantial Empire, but then losing it? I mean, it's not perfect admittedly (and doesn't really fit the original post since England isn't Celtic but Germanic)

Sure, fine, take all the wind out of my sails with logic, why don't you! Seriously though, I was thinking of the surviving Rome part of it, not the squabbling collection of successor states that decorate Europe in OTL. Although, if the Roman empire survived I would think it would grow stagnant, much like OTL China. So we get an even closer comparison of the two ideas. That's what I was thinking of.
 
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