172 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



generally reckoned a separate province ; in popular usage it long re- 

 tained its provincial identity ; and Boate, writing under the Common- 

 wealth, mentions the province as but lately merged in Leinster. The 

 Ulster of unsubdued Ireland was conterminous with the modem 

 province- of that name, save that it included Louth — a fact com- 

 memorated in the still existing incorporation of that county in the 

 See of AiTuagh and the northern ecclesiastical province — and that it 

 did not include Cavan. Ancient Munster differed fi'om the modem 

 only by including within its bounds the territory of Ely (the 

 O'Can'oll country), which, now represented by two baronies of the 

 King's County, fonns a part of Leinster. Connaught included, in 

 addition to its present territories, the County of Cavan, and a part of 

 Long-ford ; while dui'ing the sixteenth century the earldom of Thomond 

 or County of Clare oscillated, as we shall see, at the pleasure of suc- 

 cessive deputies, between ^tlunster and Connaught, giving to the western 

 province, in the periods of its association with it, a predominance it 

 has long ceased to enjoy. Meath, which is substantially identical 

 with the modern counties of Meath and Westmeath — it is practically 

 conterminous with the diocese of Meath — also embraced a considerable 

 portion of Longford ; while Leinster comprised the modern Leinster 

 counties, less Louth, Meath, Westmeath, Longford, and the part of 

 the King's County specified above. 



The first attempt at a division of Ireland into counties was, of 

 course, subsequent to the Anglo-Norman conquest, and is commonly 

 dated from the reign of King John. It is generally ascribed to the 

 tenth year of that monarch's reign ; but it does not appear that this 

 ascription, though doubtless substantially correct, rests upon any 

 extant documentary authority of ancient date. It has been adopted, 

 however, by every writer, and Sir John Davies's account is as succinct 

 and accurate as any other : ' ' Tme it is that King John, made twelve 

 shires in Leinster and Munster — namely, Dublin, Kildare, Meath, 

 Uriel or Louth, Catherlogh, Kilkenny, Wexford, "Waterford, Cork, 

 Limerick, Kerry, and Tipperary. Tet these counties did stretch no 

 further than the lands of the English colonies did extend." Harris, 

 in his additions to Ware's account of the division of Ireland,^ asserts 

 and, indeed, elaborately argues, that the twelve counties attributed to 

 King John were really of earlier origin, and were, in fact, part of an 

 earlier division effected by Henry 11. Without a division into shii'es 

 and the appointment of sheriffs, Henry's grant to Ireland of the laws 



1 " Antiquities of Ireland," chap. v. 



