Barony (Ireland)

Baronies were created during the Tudor reconquest of Ireland, replacing the earlier cantreds formed after the original Norman invasion.

[2][4] Most cantreds corresponded to the túath ('country') or trícha cét ('thirty hundred [men]') of a Gaelic chief.

However, sometimes baronies combined small territories, or split a large one, or were created without regard for the earlier boundaries.

[4] In the Norman period most Gaelic chiefs were killed, expelled, or subordinated by the new Norman lord; in the Tudor period, many Gaelic and Hibernicized lords retained their land by pledging allegiance to the Crown under surrender and regrant.

In three cases, there are adjacent half-baronies in neighbouring counties with the same name: Rathdown (Dublin—Wicklow), Fore (Meath—Westmeath), and Ballymoe (Galway—Roscommon).

Subdivision happened especially in the 19th century, when qualifiers "Upper"/"Lower"(/"Middle"), "North"/"South", or "East/"West" were used for the half-baronies.

[8] An 1837 act relaxed these restrictions for County Fermanagh, where many baronies were split by Lough Erne.

Many towns had a specific royal charter granting them borough status similar to English law.

Beaufort distinguishes between baronies and "peculiar districts"; the latter encompassing counties corporate and liberties in the environs of some of the older or larger towns and cities.

[27] The Irish who had forfeited their lands in those regions were resettled in Connacht and Clare, with each county of origin assigned to particular destination baronies.

[28] William Petty's Down Survey of 1655–6 collected statistics and produced maps at barony level to assist the reorganisation.

[33] The baronial presentment sessions were a convoluted process, lacking public confidence and marred by allegations of corruption and favouritism.

[4] The Poor Law Unions were established in 1838, each centred on an eponymous town; most new or altered responsibilities were given to them in subsequent decades.

The single-seat divisions into which the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 split most Irish county constituencies were defined largely or exclusively in terms of the baronies which they comprised; however, in some cases a barony was split parish by parish between two divisions.

These councils had power to levy rates and build public works, and the baronial presentment sessions were abolished.

For example, the form for registration of a freehold property includes a schedule "To contain description of the property, giving area, townland, barony and county, or, if in a city or urban district, the street or road and city or urban district".

Some public houses and older provincial hotels bear the name of the barony in which they are located; likewise some clubs of the Gaelic Athletic Association, for example Carbury (County Kildare), Castlerahan, and Kilmurry Ibrickane.

Four of the six regional divisions of Cork GAA are named after baronies corresponding to major parts of their respective areas: Carbery, Duhallow, Imokilly, and Muskerry.