Irish Wales

[Thande]

Yes, they were pretty different. To an extent. But then all dark ages peoples were very similar in some ways. Big debate as said.

As to will they be called Welsh...Could be. You could put Greeks in Wales and the English might still call them Welsh.

Welsh just means Those Foreigners Who Live Over There And Talk Funny, so seems likely. In other Germanic languages the root was used to denote groups as unconnected as Walloons and Wallachians.

 

[SlickWilly]

Much later there was substantial Irish emmigration to Wales, but nowhere near levels to Scotland and England!
Historically the links between Ireland and Scotland were once so strong that the terms Scotsman and Irishman were regarded as interchangeable but that was in the first millenium AD.

 

[Bee]

The lead in expelling the Irish from Wales was taken by Cunedda and his sons, who moved from the Votadini lands in what's now southern Scotland. Supposing Cunedda is intercepted before he gets to Wales. That gives the Irish a reprieve.

I've no idea how anybody can say whether enough Irish moved to Wales in the early dark ages to set up a viable state -- the records are very skimpy and don't give any population numbers.