County Towns: Ireland

Ireland was divided into 32 counties by the Normans in the 12th century. Following partition in 1921, Northern Ireland consisted of six of the counties, the other 26 being in the Republic.

Northern Ireland

The six counties of Northern Ireland no longer exist as administrative units. The traditional capitals are:

Antrim		Belfast
Armagh		Armagh
Down		Downpatrick
Fermanagh		Enniskillen
Derry (Londonderry)		Coleraine
Tyrone		Omagh

The Republic of Ireland

As we've seen, 26 of the 32 traditional Irish counties were in the Republic following partition. Tipperary had been divided into two (North and South Tipperary) in 1838, making 27; and in 1994, County Dublin was split into three counties (Fingal, South Dublin, and Dun Laoghaire–Rathdown) bringing the total to 29. Then in 2014, the division of Tipperary was reversed, leaving 28 counties. Many sources still list and/or number only 26.

As well as the 28 counties, there are two "city and county" entities – Limerick and Waterford – which are separate from County Limerick and County Waterford respectively.

Of the county towns, the following 13 are self–evident: County Carlow, County Cavan, County Cork, County Galway, County Kilkenny, County Limerick, County Longford, County Monaghan, County Roscommon, County Sligo, County Waterford, County Wexford, and County Wicklow. The other 16 are:

County Clare		Ennis
County Donegal		Lifford
County of Dun Laoghaire – Rathdown		Dun Laoghaire
County Fingal		Swords
County Kerry		Tralee
County Kildare		Naas
County Laois		Portlaoise
County Leitrim		Carrick–on–Shannon
County Louth		Dundalk
County Mayo		Castlebar
County Meath		Trim
County Offaly		Tullamore
County of South Dublin		Tallaght
County Tipperary		Clonmel
County Westmeath		Mullingar

County of North Tipperary (1838–2013)

Nenagh

© Haydn Thompson 2017–21