2017, when plans were announced for an iron sculpture of a giant ring as part of a restoration project of Flint Castle, the project was met with criticism and accusations that it was commemorating the Edwardian conquest of Wales, a contentious event among the Welsh public. The plans were ultimately cancelled after social media campaign and petition. Ireland The Plantations of Ireland occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries and involved the English Crown confiscating lands owned by Irish Catholics and redistributing them to Protestant settlers from Great Britain. Though there had been period immigration from Great Britain to Ireland since the Anglo-Norman invasion, these immigrants had largely assimilated into Irish culture by the 15th century, and the direct area controlled by the English Crown had shrunk to an area known as the Pale. Beginning in the 1540's, the Tudor conquest of Ireland began, and roughly a decade later the first English plantations were established by Protestant British settlers on Irish soil. These plantations began during the reign of Queen Mary I of England in the counties of Laois and Offaly. However, these efforts at establishing plantations largely failed due to attacks from the local Irish clans. The next wave of plantations began during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England and were spearheaded by the West Country Men. Elizabeth's policy in Ireland was to grant land to prospective planters and prevent the Irish from giving Spain a base from which to attack England. The plantation of Ulster began in the 1610s, during the reign of James I. Following their defeat in the Nine Years' War, many rebel Ulster lords fled Ireland and their lands were confiscated. This was the biggest and most successful of the plantations and comprised most of the province of Ulster. While the province was mainly Irish-speaking and Catholic, the new settlers were required to be English-speaking and Protestant, with most coming from England and Scotland. This created a distinct Ulster Protestant community. North America Beginning in the 15th century with the voyages of Christopher Columbus, various European colonial powers established colonies in the Americas. England's efforts at colonization primarily focused on North America, where the first English plantation was established in 1607 at Jamestown. Over the next century, more English plantations would be established along the Eastern Seaboard, which collectively came to be known as the Thirteen American Colonies, consisting of the New England,