Falkiner— 27ic CoiDilics of It-clnnd. 180 



the term wliicli can be recognised as existing; in Ulster before the 

 time of Elizabeth were Louth, which, as already noted, was anciently 

 accounted part of that province, and the counties of Antrim and 

 Down. The precise date at which the two last were constituted is 

 unknown ; but it appears by the "Black Book of Christ Church" that 

 they, or at least certain districts bearing these names, had existed prior 

 to the reign of Edward II. Erom that time down to the settlement in 

 Antrim of the McDonnells of the Isles, under Henry YIII., little is 

 known of them ; but the two counties had been recognised as settled 

 districts by Perrot's time, and as such were distinguished by that 

 Deputy from the "unreformed" parts of Ulster. In 1575 Sir Henry 

 Sydney had made a journey to Ulster with a view to dividing the 

 province into shires, but had failed to effect anything — an effort which 

 was referred to by Sir John Davies in his address as Speaker of the 

 Irish Parliament in 1613; when, congratulating the Commons on the 

 completeness of its representation, he observed, " How glad would Sir 

 Henry Sydney have been to see this day, he that so much desired to 

 reform Ulster, but never could perfectly perform it." 



Perrot's contribution to the shiring of Ulster was little more than 

 a settlement on paper of the boundaries of the new counties he desired 

 to create. It is best described in the language of Sir John Davies : — 

 "After him [Sydney] Sir John Perrot . . . reduced the unreformed 

 parts of Ulster into seven shires, namely, Armagh, Monaghan, Tyrone, 

 Coleraine, Donegal, Eermanagh, and Cavan, though in his time the 

 law was never executed in these new counties by any Sheriff or 

 Justices of Assize ; but the people left to be ruled still by their own 

 barbarous lords and laws." Perrot's work was of course interrupted, 

 and for the time rendered nugatory, by the rising of Hugh O'Neill ; 

 but it was so far effective that his division became the basis of tlie 

 subsequent allocation of the northern territories, which a few years 

 later followed the Plight of the Earls and the Plantation of Ulster. 



Had affairs in England permitted the Government to bestow steady 

 and continuous attention on the affairs of Ireland, it is probable that 

 the work initiated by Sussex and Sydney, and so largely extended by 

 Sir John Perrot, would have been completed before the close of Eliza- 

 beth's reign. But Perrot was recalled in 1588, and the business of 

 shiring Ireland was arrested for nearly twenty years. "W^ith O'Neill 

 taking full advantage of the difficulties in which England was involved 

 by the struggle with Spain, and asserting his power effectively 

 throughout Ulster, the sub-division of the northern province remained 

 purely nominal, and even in the more settled districts much confusion 

 reigned. The result is seen in the discrepancies which appeal- between 



