Baronies of Ireland

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"Baron" was also a title in the Peerage of Ireland. Such barons had no connection to any geographic barony.

In Ireland, a barony is a historical geographical unit: normally a subdivision of a county, although some baronies straddle county boundaries as a result of subsequent reorganisation of local government. The names and boundaries of baronies were defined during the English conquest of Ireland, although in many cases, they correspond to earlier Gaelic territories, and some were subsequently subdivided. An extreme example of this subdivision is the County Down barony of Iveagh covering most of the west of the county, originally the territory of the Mac Aonghusa or MacGuinness family, which was first divided into Lower Iveagh and Upper Iveagh, and each of these divisions being then further subdivided into a Lower Half and an Upper Half.

Baronies were used for administrative purposes within counties from medieval times until the establishment of the county councils under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, when they were replaced by urban and rural district councils. While baronies continue to be officially defined units, they are no longer used for any administrative purpose. The Local Government (Ireland) Act also caused a number of county boundaries to be modified, with the result that a number of baronies now cross county boundaries. This can cause confusion to genealogy researchers, who may be unable to find an area referred to as being in a particular county in 19th century sources in the modern county.

In two cases, Rathdown and Fore, there are adjacent baronies in neighbouring counties (Dublin/Wicklow and Meath/Westmeath respectively) with the same name. These are not the result of the 1898 Act, but instead represent half-baronies, subdivisions of older baronies, which found themselves in different counties when Westmeath and Wicklow were established as separate counties in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

Old feudal baronies generally no longer exist. However, a Prescriptive Barony, the lordship of Fingal, granted by King John in 1208 that covered the northern district of County Dublin and consisted of several subordinate baronies, was raised to the status of a county in the administrative reorganisation of Ireland undertaken in 1994.