Counties of Ireland

The counties of Ireland were traditional and long standing divisions of the island of Ireland. Ireland was originally divided into five provinces, Ulster, Leinster, Munster, Connacht and Meath, with the latter eventually being absorbed into Leinster. The provinces were further subdivided into many hundreds of tuatha, a term which translates from the Irish language as meaning both the people, tribe or clan of an area and the territory they controlled. Following the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century, the process of shiring the country into baronies and then counties began.

The counties underwent various changes and renamings over the years, settling into their by now traditional styles by the middle of the 19th century.

Partition of Ireland

The partition of Ireland into Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State saw the traditional thirty-two counties being split - six of the nine Ulster counties became Northern Ireland, while the remaining twenty-six counties became the Irish Free State.