The Counties Of Ireland

Surnames/tags: IRISH_ROOTS Northern_Ireland Eire

Part of the Ireland Project  For a selection of sources see the All Ireland Sources page.

To return or go to the Category for the Counties click here.

This page is managed by the Irish Roots Counties Team

Contents 1 The Counties Of Ireland 1.1 Table of Counties 2 Creating Geographic Categories linked to Irish Counties 3 Navigation to County, Town, Parish etc 4 Official Placenames in Ireland 5 Sources

The Counties Of Ireland

Please be aware that for the purposes of locational categories, i.e. those defined as places, ALL are categorised under Ireland, Places. This includes all place names, cemeteries, churches, schools, universities, etc.

The idea of counties was first introduced to Ireland following the Anglo-Norman invasion in the twelfth century. At that time 12 counties were defined in Leinster and Munster. From that time until the mid sixteenth century county borders were not well defined reflecting the weakness of English control during that period. During the reign of Elizabeth 1 the counties o f, Longford, Clare, Galway, Sligo, Mayo, Roscommon, Leitrim, Armagh, Monaghan (1585), Tyrone, Derry , Donegal, Fermanagh (1585), and Cavan were formed. But still the county borders were not very clearly set out. However, improvements in mapping gradually resulted in the counties as we know them today. Wicklow, surveyed and destinguished into a county in 1606, was the last county to be formed

In Ireland, usage of the word county nearly always comes before rather than after the county name; thus "County Clare" in Ireland as opposed to "Clare County" in Michigan, United States. The former "King's County" and "Queen's County" were exceptions; these are now County Offaly and County Laois, respectively. The abbreviation Co. is used, as in "Co. Clare"

Table of Counties

In this table the link in the County name takes you to the information page for the county (work in progress by the way). From those pages you will find navigation links to the Parishes and Towns of the selected County. You may also find links in the table below that take you directly to main towns and cities that are mentioned and there are also links to the Provinces.

County	Irish name	County town	Most populous city/town	Province	Region
Antrim	Aontroim (Contae Aontroma)	Ballymena (formerly Carrickfergus 1850–1970)	Belfast (part)	Ulster	Northern Ireland
Armagh	Ard Mhacha (Contae Ard Mhacha)	Armagh	Craigavon	Ulster	Northern Ireland
Carlow	Ceatharlach (Contae Cheatharlach)	Carlow	Carlow	Leinster	South-East Region
Cavan	An Cabhán (Contae an Chabháin)	Cavan	Cavan	Ulster	Border Region
Clare	An Clár (Contae an Chláir)	Ennis	Ennis	Munster	Mid-West
Cork	Corcaigh (Contae Chorcaí)	Cork	Cork	Munster	South-West
Derry	see Londonderry
Donegal	Dún na nGall (Contae Dhún na nGall)	Lifford	Letterkenny	Ulster	Border Region
Down	An Dún (Contae an Dúin)	Downpatrick	Belfast (part)	Ulster	Northern Ireland
Dublin	Baile Átha Cliath (Contae Bhaile Átha Cliath)	Dublin City	Dublin City	Leinster	Dublin Region
The County Dublin area was split in 1994 into the administrative counties of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin
Fermanagh	Fear Manach (Contae Fhear Manach)	Enniskillen	Enniskillen	Ulster	Northern Ireland
Galway	Gaillimh (Contae na Gaillimhe)	Galway City	Galway City	Connacht	West Region
Kerry	Ciarraí (Contae Chiarraí)	Tralee	Tralee	Munster	South West
Kildare	Cill Dara (Contae Chill Dara)	Naas	Newbridge	Leinster	Mid East
Kilkenny	Cill Chainnigh (Contae Chill Chainnigh)	Kilkenny	Kilkenny	Leinster	South East
Laois	Laois (Contae Laoise)	Portlaoise	Portlaoise	Leinster	The Midlands
Leitrim	Liatroim (Contae Liatroma)	Carrick-on-Shannon	Carrick-on-Shannon	Connacht	Border Region
Limerick	Luimneach (Contae Luimnigh)	Limerick	Limerick	Munster	Mid West
Londonderry	Doire (Contae Dhoire)	Coleraine	Derry	Ulster	Northern Ireland
Longford	An Longfort (Contae an Longfoirt)	Longford	Longford	Leinster	The Midlands
Louth	Lú (Contae Lú)	Dundalk	Drogheda	Leinster	Mid East
Mayo	Maigh Eo (Contae Mhaigh Eo)	Castlebar	Castlebar	Connacht	West Region
Meath	An Mhí (Contae na Mí)	Navan (formerly Trim)	Navan	Leinster	Mid East
Monaghan	Muineachán (Contae Mhuineacháin)	Monaghan	Monaghan	Ulster	Border Region
Offaly	Uíbh Fhailí (Contae Uíbh Fhailí)	Philipstown)	Tullamore	Leinster	The Midlands
Roscommon	Ros Comáin (Contae Ros Comáin)	Roscommon	Roscommon	Connacht	West Region
Sligo	Sligeach (Contae Shligigh)	Sligo	Sligo	Connacht	Border Region
Tipperary	Tiobraid Árann (Contae Thiobraid Árann)	Nenagh (formerly Clonmel & Cashel)	Clonmel	Munster
Tyrone	Tír Eoghain (Contae Thír Eoghain)	Omagh	Omagh	Ulster	Northern Ireland
Waterford	Port Láirge (Contae Phort Láirge)	Waterford	Waterford	Munster	South East
Westmeath	An Iarmhí (Contae na hIarmhí)	Mullingar	Athlone	Leinster	South East
Wexford	Loch Garman (Contae Loch Garman)	Wexford	Wexford	Leinster	South East
Wicklow	Cill Mhantáin (Contae Chill Mhantáin)	Wicklow	Bray	Leinster	Mid East

Creating Geographic Categories linked to Irish Counties

See the full explanation on the page: Creating Location Categories For Ireland

Navigation to County, Town, Parish etc

The Civil Parish Space is a central location now for the names of all the towns, population centers and townlands within the Civil Parish. Each County page, accesses from the links above, has a top navigation bar similar to this example: (The underlined ones are NOT links in this example)

Ireland	Main Sligo Page	Civil Parishes	Towns	Sligo Team page

This system, which is being rolled out to all County Space pages in Ireland, make for very quick navigation around a county.

The Civil Parishes space has a list of all the categories currently created and spaces pages currently created for all Civil Parishes in the County. The Towns link takes you to the listing of all known Towns and Population centres in the County (based on Logainm.ie) and the Team Pages takes you to the...well Team page of course!

When you are on a Parish Page there is different navigation top bar:

Ireland	Main Sligo Page	Category for Achonry Parish	Civil Parishes in County Sligo

If you have any questions about how to create categories please do not hesitate to contact the Categories Team or, for location categories, the Counties Coordinator, who will be happy to help!

Official Placenames in Ireland

GAZETTEER OF IRELAND (PDF) Names of centres of population and physical features

The Placenames (Centres of Population and Districts) Order 2005 (PDF)

Placenames (County Cork) Order 2012 (PDF)

Sources

• Counties of Ireland
• HOW AND WHEN THE 32 COUNTIES OF IRELAND FORMED