Counties of Northern Ireland

{{see also|Counties of Ireland#History}}

The English administration in Ireland in the years following the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland created counties as the major subdivisions of an Irish province. This process lasted from the 13th to 17th centuries; however, the number and shape of the counties that would form the future Northern Ireland would not be defined until the Flight of the Earls allowed the shiring of Ulster from 1604. Each county would have an associated county town, with county courts of quarter sessions and assizes.

The area of the modern counties of Antrim and Down was the Earldom of Ulster based on John de Courcy's 1170s conquest of Gaelic Ulaid. Between the late 13th and early 14th centuries it was subdivided into multiple shires based around centres of Norman power such as Antrim, Carrickfergus, and Newtownards. The Bruce invasion (1315–18) saw the devastation of the Earldom of Ulster and its overlordship over the neighbouring Gaelic districts. With the murder of the last de Burgh earl in 1333, the resulting Gaelic recovery expanded Clandeboy and eroded the earldom's territory until by the 15th century only the areas of Carrickfergus and coastal enclaves in Down remained.

It was not until the reign of Queen Elizabeth I that Ulster would be shired into more counties. After the 1567 death and 1570 attainder of Shane O'Neill, much of Clandeboy was added to the surviving English enclaves to form the new counties of Antrim and Down, preparing for an abortive private English plantation. In 1584, Lord Deputy of Ireland Sir John Perrott created six counties in Ulster, based largely on the boundaries of existing lordships; four of the six are now Northern Ireland: Armagh, Coleraine, Fermanagh, and Tyrone. The noncooperation and later rebellion of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone made Perrott's scheme largely notional until the Nine Years' War ended and the Flight of the Earls allowed the Plantation of Ulster to reinforce the county government. The County of the town of Carrickfergus remained separate from County Antrim until the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, which also promoted the boroughs of Belfast and Derry to county boroughs separate from the adjoining administrative counties.

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|File:Ulster_Late_15th_Century.png|Later 15th century – Boundaries of counties and lordships (black border) and minor lordships (grey border) in Ulster.

|File:Ulster_Early_16th_Century.png|Early 16th century – General boundaries of lordships in Ulster.

|File:Ulster 1584.png|1584 – General boundaries of the counties of Ulster created by the Lord Deputy of Ireland Sir John Perrott.

|File:Ulster 1613.png|1613 – Ulster after the creation of County Londonderry, from the merger of County Coleraine, the North West Liberties of Londonderry (1), Loughinsholin (2), and North East Liberties of Coleraine (3).

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{{main|Barony (Ireland)}}

Each county is divided into a number of baronies, midway between a county and a parish. Baronies are now obsolete as administrative units, partially derived from the territory of an Irish chieftain. By the time the process of turning local Irish kingdoms into baronies occurred throughout the whole of Ulster by the early 17th century as part of the Plantation of Ulster, it was already being used for taxation and administrative purposes.

Baronies were used for many records from the 17th to 19th centuries such as: the Civil Survey; Petty's Down Survey; the Books of Survey and Distribution; the 19th century valuation books and census returns. The Grand Jury representment system would also be based on the barony.

{{Main|Districts of Northern Ireland}}

The counties were also used as the administrative unit of local government introduced in Ireland under the 1898 Local Government Act along with county boroughs. In regards to Northern Ireland the cities of Belfast and Londonderry became county boroughs. The administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished as local government areas in Northern Ireland in 1972 and replaced with twenty-six unitary councils, many of which cross county boundaries.

The six administrative counties and two county boroughs remain in use for some purposes, including car number plates. The six counties were also used as postal counties by the Royal Mail for sorting purposes until their abolition in 1996. Outside government, the counties are used for cultural purposes, for example in the Gaelic Athletic Association.

File:Lord Lieutenancies - home nations coloured.png

{{main|Lieutenancy area}}

Like the rest of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland is divided into lieutenancy areas{{Cite web |date=1975 |title=Northern Ireland (Lieutenancy) Order 1975 |url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1975/156/pdfs/uksi_19750156_en.pdf;https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1898/act/37/enacted/en/print.html}} (see map on right). These are areas that have an appointed Lord Lieutenant—the representative of the British monarch. Northern Ireland has eight lieutenancy areas:

These boundaries of the above are contiguous with the six administrative counties and two county boroughs established by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898.

Former counties which formed part of the six modern counties of Northern Ireland:

• County Coleraine formed from the territory of the O'Cahans in 1584 by Queen Elizabeth I, formed the basis of modern County Londonderry.
• Carrickfergus was formerly a county of itself, it extended further than the modern borough of Carrickfergus. It was merged into County Antrim in 1899.
• Antrim, Blathewyc, Cragferus, Coulrath, del Art, Dun, Ladcathel and Twescard, the seven counties that formed the Earldom of Ulster in 1333.Bardon, Jonathan: A History of Ulster, page 45. The Black Staff Press, 2005. {{ISBN|0-85640-764-X}}Hughes and Hannan: Place-Names of Northern Ireland, Volume Two, County Down II, The Ards, The Queen's University of Belfast, 1992. {{ISBN|085389-450-7}}
• In 1549, Ulster itself was called a county containing the baronies of Arde, Bentry, Dondalk, Dufferens, Gallagh, Grenecastle, Kroghfergous, Lacayall, Maulyn, Twscard, and Glyns.

• List of Northern Ireland counties by highest point
• Local government in Northern Ireland
• Counties of the United Kingdom
• Counties of Ireland
• List of Irish counties by population
• List of Irish counties by area
• Provinces of Ireland

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{{Reflist|

refs=

Connolly 2002 p.129

Connolly 2002 pp.589–590

{{cite book |editor-last1=Moody |editor-first1=Theodore William |editor1-link=Theodore William Moody |editor-last2=Martin |editor-first2=Francis X. |editor2-link=F. X. Martin |editor-last3=Byrne |editor-first3=Francis John |editor3-link=Francis John Byrne |title=Maps, Genealogies, Lists: A Companion to Irish History, Part II |chapter-url=http://fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/academic/pdf/13/9780199593064.pdf#page=43 |chapter-format=PDF |pages=43, 108–109 |access-date=11 July 2017 |series=A New History of Ireland |volume=IX |date=25 March 2011 |orig-year=1984 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=9780199593064 |no-pp=y|chapter=Map 45: Counties 1542–1613 [and Notes] }}

{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150824021440/http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/local_history/areas_regions_and_land_divisions/main_administrative_land_divisions.htm |archive-date=24 August 2015 |url=http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/local_history/areas_regions_and_land_divisions/main_administrative_land_divisions.htm |publisher=Public Records Office of Northern Ireland |title=Areas, regions, and land divisions}}

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• {{cite book |last=Connolly |first=Sean J. |title=Oxford Companion to Irish History |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2002 |isbn=978-0-19-923483-7 }}
• {{cite book |last1=Falkiner |first1=C. Litton (Caesar Litton) |title=Illustrations of Irish history and topography, mainly of the seventeenth century |date=1904 |publisher=Longmans, Green |location=London |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/illustrationsofi00falk/page/127 |access-date=28 August 2019 |chapter=The Counties of Ireland |pages=103–142: 127–128}}

{{commons category|Counties of Northern Ireland}}

• [http://www.historiccountiestrust.co.uk/ The Historic Counties Trust]

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Counties Northern Ireland

Category:Lists of counties of the United Kingdom