Considering the strategic location of our little Island it would seem to make sense, go to a land where the native population mostly hates your biggest rival use them as a base of operations for attacks on England while also attacking from the other side.
The Spanish landed at Kinsale in 1601 , Mountjoy besieged them. O'Donnell tried to relieve them but fucked it up and the Gaelic armies were soundly beaten.
The French landed in Killalla in 1798 under General Humbert. They won most of their initial battles but the British beat them soundly when they tried to land reinforcement. Wolfe Tone was captured and later killed himself.