Provinces of Ireland

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Provinces of Ireland

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The Four Provinces of Ireland

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The Four Provinces of Ireland
Location

1. Leinster, 2. Munster, 3. Connacht, 4. Ulster
Statistics
Area Area Area is a quantity expressing the two-dimensional size of a defined part of a surface, typically a region bounded by a closed curve. The term surface area refers to the total area of the exposed surface of a 3-dimensional solid, such as the sum of the areas of the exposed sides of a polyhedron.... :	84,412 km²
Population Population File:Population density.pngIn biology, a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular species; in sociology, a collection of human beings.... (2006):	5,962,110

Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
has historically been divided into four province
Province

A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state....
s, although the Irish-language word for this territorial division, cúige (literally: "fifth part"), indicates that there were once five — Meath
Kingdom of Mide

Mide was a Kingdoms of Ireland in Ireland. It existed as a kingdom from at least the early historic era. Its name means "middle", denoting the fact that it was situated in the very centre of Ireland; it included all of the current County Meath as well as all of County Westmeath and parts of County Cavan, County Dublin, County Kildare,...
(now incorporated into Leinster) being the fifth.

The four provinces are:

Province Population (2006) Area (km²) Number of Counties
Counties of Ireland

In a process that began following the Norman invasion, and was completed in 1606, the island of Ireland was divided into thirty-two county ....
† Chief city
Leinster
Leinster

Leinster , one of the Provinces of Ireland, lies in the east of Ireland and comprises the counties of County Carlow, County Dublin, County Kildare, County Kilkenny, County Laois, County Longford, County Louth, County Meath, County Offaly, County Westmeath, County Wexford and County Wicklow....
2,292,939 19,774 12 Dublin
Dublin

Dublin is both the largest city and capital of Republic of Ireland. It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the centre of the Dublin Region....
Munster
Munster

Munster is the southernmost of the four provinces of Ireland. The largest city in Munster is Cork ....
1,172,170 24,608 6 Cork
Cork (city)

Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the Ireland third most populous city after Dublin and Belfast. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the Provinces of Ireland of Munster....
Connacht
Connacht

Connacht is the western Provinces of Ireland of Ireland, comprising counties County Galway, County Leitrim, County Mayo, County Roscommon, County Sligo....
503,083 17,713 5 Galway
Galway

Galway is the fourth largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the only city in the province of Connacht in Republic of Ireland. The city is located on the west coast of Ireland....
Ulster
Ulster

Ulster is one of the four Provinces of Ireland of Ireland, in addition to Connacht, Munster and Leinster. The name is sometimes informally used as a synonym for Northern Ireland, one of the countries of the United Kingdom, although Northern Ireland covers only two thirds of Ulster....
1,993,918‡ 24,481 9 Belfast
Belfast

Belfast is the capital city of Northern Ireland and the seat of Devolution#United Kingdom Northern Ireland Executive and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly in Northern Ireland....
Note 1: † "Number of Counties" is traditional counties, not administrative ones.
Note 2: ‡ Population for Ulster is the sum of the 2006 census results for counties of Ulster in Republic of Ireland and the 2006 estimated population for Northern Ireland. Population for other provinces is all 2006 census results.

The origins of these provinces (loosely federated kingdoms with somewhat flexible boundaries) of which there were five in existence prior to the coming of the Normans can be traced to the overriding influence exerted in their respective territories by the great Irish dynastic families of O Neill (Ulster), O Melaghlin (Mide), O Brien (Munster), O Conor (Connacht) and MacMurrough-Kavanagh (Leinster). In the post-Norman period the historic provinces of Leinster and Meath gradually merged, mainly due to the impact of the Pale
The Pale

The Pale or the English Pale , was the English-controlled part of Ireland that had reduced by the late 1400s to an area along the east coast stretching from Dalkey, south of Dublin, to the garrison town of Dundalk north of Drogheda....
, which straddled both, thereby forming the present-day province of Leinster. In the Irish Annals these five ancient political divisions were invariably referred to as Cúigí, i.e ‘fifth parts’, such as the fifth of Munster, the fifth of Ulster and so on. Later record-makers, dubbed them ‘provinces’, in imitation of the Roman imperial provinciae.

In modern times they have become associated with groups of specific counties, although they have no legal status. They are today seen in a sporting context, as Ireland's four professional rugby teams play under the names of the provinces, and the Gaelic Athletic Association
Gaelic Athletic Association

The Gaelic Athletic Association is an amateur Irish and international cultural and sporting organisation mainly focused on promoting Gaelic games: the traditional Ireland sports of hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, Gaelic handball and rounders....
has separate Provincial council
Provincial council

Provincial councils are organisational bodies within the Gaelic Athletic Association, each made up of several GAA county. The provincial council is responsible for the organisation of club and inter-county competitions such as the Provincial championships, and the promotion of Gaelic games within their region....
s and Provincial championships
Provincial championships

A Provincial Championship occurs in the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland. There are four Provincial councils in Ireland; Ulster GAA, Connacht GAA, Leinster GAA and Munster GAA as well as councils outside Ireland such as that which covers British GAA....
.

The provinces were supplanted by the present system of counties after the Norman
Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their names to Normandy, a region in northern France. They descended from Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of mostly Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock....
occupation in the twelfth century.

Six of the nine Ulster counties form modern-day Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland

conventional_long_name = Northern Ireland|native_name= Tuaisceart ?ireannNorlin Airlann|motto =|image_map = Europe location N-IRL2.png...
, which is part of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
. Northern Ireland is often referred to as a province

Province

A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state....
of the United Kingdom. These two inconsistent usages of the word "province" (along with the use of the term "Ulster" to describe Northern Ireland) can cause confusion.

Poetic description
This dinnseanchas poem named Ard Ruide (Ruide Headland) poetically describes the kingdoms of Ireland. Below is a translation from Old Irish:

Provinces of Ireland

Poetic description

See also