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Provinces, Counties, Townlands...HELP!

© Leona MacDonald

Ireland has a lot of divisions. Let's briefly walk you through this and give you some URL's.

Provinces: Clickable map of Ireland's provinces

There are 4 provinces in Ireland. Ulster, Munster, Leinster, and Connaught. Ulster lies both in Northern Ireland and in the Republic.

Sometimes you'll hear about a fifth province of Ireland. The 5th Province is a mythic province that unites the other four provinces in the center of Ireland. The word for 'province' in Irish is Cóiced which means 'fifth'. Tradition in literature holds that five brothers of the Fir Bolg, the original mythic settlers in Ireland, shared Ireland between them. It's told there was both an East and West Munster. However you will hear the fifth province was Meath (Mide). It's a long story you can find here Celtopedia. There's also a tale that says that Ireland will never be whole until Meath is reunited with the whole. Commonly this 5th province is said to be held within each of the Irish Descended. My Grandpa probably changed that story though. :-)

Counties: Clickable County Map of Ireland

There are 32 counties on the Island of Ireland. The Republic of Ireland has 26 counties and Northern Ireland has 6.

Barony:

A subdivision of a county. There are 331 Baronies in Ireland. One Barony can cross county lines. That's important to note if you are searching for some lost Ancestor.

Civil Parishes:

There are 2508 of them in Ireland and they also do not follow county lines. They cross boundries much of the time!

Townlands:

Ack!!! There are 60,462 of these fellas and some have the same names. Sometimes you may find 40 or 50 with the same names!!

Cities, Towns & Boroughs :

Very confusing. All of these vary in size. Some cities have several Boroughs. Some townships have several parishes. Some parishes have several townships. Did I mention Wards yet? Cities have Wards. Eyes spinning?

Poor Unions:

163 that are also oblivious to any previously set up division in Ireland.

Dispensary District:

A subdivision of Poor Unions.

Superintendent Registrar's District:

Another name for Poor Unions. The name got changed along the line.

Registrar's District:

Is the name the Dispensary District was changed to.

Archdioceses:

There are four of these that are kind of like the provinces.

Diocese:

22 dioceses within the four archdioceses.

Parish:

Diocese are subdivided into parishes. Civil Parishes and Parishes may NOT have the same boundaries depending on the dates. Check on that carefully!

More Links: You can find more information on all the above at the following URL's

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