I am Irish and a student of Irish History and I cannot believe the amount of misinformation in this episode and the review by fabian5.
First off, to call Brian Boru "the last King of Ireland" is wrong. At the time, Ireland was a grouping of territories under various local and provincial kings. The most powerful of these provincial kings was usually acclaimed the High King. This, though, did not guarantee subservience or loyalty from lesser kings. And he was not the last. The last one was Rory O'Connor in the 1160's and that because of the Norman invasion.
The episode furthers its inaccurate take on Irish History by making Boru look like he is in his 30's or 40's when he generally thought to have been in his 70's or 80's at the time of the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 (not 1000). His age makes the absence of multiple bodyguards all the more puzzling since Boru would have been too old and distraught over the deaths of his son and heir and his sons eldest son to wield a sword effectively or fight a young and strong enemy soldier. The battle was fought against a coalition of rebellious Irishmen and local Danes allied to foreign invaders. Plus the Irish did not wear 13th or 14th century armour as shown in the episode.
To top of the historical inaccuracies, "Ireland" did not gain independence from Britain in 1922/23. 26 of 32 Irish counties were set up as the Irish Free State while the rest were set up as Northern Ireland. A very limited form of independence for both entities and both were/are very much under Westminsters control.
First off, to call Brian Boru "the last King of Ireland" is wrong. At the time, Ireland was a grouping of territories under various local and provincial kings. The most powerful of these provincial kings was usually acclaimed the High King. This, though, did not guarantee subservience or loyalty from lesser kings. And he was not the last. The last one was Rory O'Connor in the 1160's and that because of the Norman invasion.
The episode furthers its inaccurate take on Irish History by making Boru look like he is in his 30's or 40's when he generally thought to have been in his 70's or 80's at the time of the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 (not 1000). His age makes the absence of multiple bodyguards all the more puzzling since Boru would have been too old and distraught over the deaths of his son and heir and his sons eldest son to wield a sword effectively or fight a young and strong enemy soldier. The battle was fought against a coalition of rebellious Irishmen and local Danes allied to foreign invaders. Plus the Irish did not wear 13th or 14th century armour as shown in the episode.
To top of the historical inaccuracies, "Ireland" did not gain independence from Britain in 1922/23. 26 of 32 Irish counties were set up as the Irish Free State while the rest were set up as Northern Ireland. A very limited form of independence for both entities and both were/are very much under Westminsters control.