Our Irish Ancestors Paul Francis, 2010 Page 1 Our link to Ireland comes through the Knox Family. ... Back at this time, Ireland was largely controlled by wealthy Protestant landowners, the descendants of the English and Scottish "Planters" who had invaded Ireland in the 1600s, displaced the natives and appropriated their lands, becoming fabulously wealthy in the process. ... They decided to try their luck across the Irish Sea, and in a year of terror sacked coastal monasteries all around Ireland. ...