Administrative counties of Ireland

Following the separation of the Irish Free State from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, administrative counties continued in use in the two parts of the island of Ireland under their respective sovereign jurisdictions.

The administrative counties were created by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898.

The Act established a new system of local government in Ireland, consisting of county councils, similar to the systems created for England and Wales by the Local Government Act 1888 and for Scotland by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889.

The administrative counties of Northern Ireland were abandoned as local government areas by the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972.

In 1994 the administrative county of Dublin was abolished and its area was divided into three parts for the purposes of local government: Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin.