Baronies were subdivisions of counties, mainly cadastral but with some administrative functions prior to the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898.
Creation date is sometimes specified as an upper bound (and possibly a lower bound) rather than the precise year: Notes: The names of more recently abolished baronies are generally preserved in the successor baronies; e.g. "Massereene" was split into "Massereene Lower" and "Massereene Upper", and "Coshmore" and "Coshbride" were merged into Coshmore and Coshbride.
c.108) separated the rural hinterland or "liberties" from some of the counties corporate, restricting their jurisdiction to the relevant municipal town, borough, or city.
The "half barony of Varbo" shown between Trughanacmy and Corkaguiny on the map of the Desmond or Clancarthy Survey of 1598 may correspond to the medieval cantred of Uí Fearba / Hy Ferba / "Offariba otherwise Arbowe", which comprised the castle and lands of Listrim and Ballinoe.
However, the Local Government (Drogheda and Meath) Act 1845 first recites that this area was in fact transferred to County Louth under the 1840 Act (as part of the Louth barony of Drogheda) and then goes on to transfer the land to County Meath as part of Lower Duleek barony.