| County Waterford Contae Phort Láirge
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| Motto: Déisi oc Declán co Bráth (Irish) "May the Déise remain with Declan forever" |
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| Country | Ireland | ||
| Province | Munster | ||
| Dáil Éireann | Tipperary South Waterford |
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| EU Parliament | South | ||
| County seat | Waterford | ||
| Government | |||
| • Type | County Council and City Council | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 1,857 km2 (717 sq mi) | ||
| Area rank | 20th | ||
| Population (2011) | 113,707 | ||
| • Rank | 20th | ||
| Car plates | W (city) & WD (county) | ||
| Website | www.waterfordcoco.ie | ||
County Waterford (Irish: Contae Phort Láirge) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Waterford which is derived from the Old Norse name Veðrafjǫrðr or Vedrarfjord. There is an Irish-speaking area in the south of the county. Waterford County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county at large, including the city, is 113,707 according to the 2011 census.
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County Waterford has two mountain ranges, the Knockmealdown Mountains and the Comeragh Mountains. The highest point in the county is Knockmealdown, at 794m. It also has many rivers, including Ireland's third longest river, the River Suir (184 km); and Ireland's fourth longest river, the Munster Blackwater (168 km). There are over 30 beaches along Waterford's volcanic coast line. A large stretch of this coastline, known as the Copper Coast has been designated as a UNESCO Geopark, a place of great geological importance. The area around Ring (An Rinn) is a Gaeltacht, an Irish-speaking area.
Dungarvan is the county seat[1] for Waterford County Council.
There are eight historic baronies in the county: Coshmore and Coshbride, Decies-within-Drum, Decies-without-Drum, Gaultiere, Glenahiry, Middle Third, Upperthird and Waterford City.
| Historical populations | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
| 1653 | 13,136 | — |
| 1659 | 13,286 | +1.1% |
| 1821 | 76,103 | +472.8% |
| 1831 | 85,217 | +12.0% |
| 1841 | 196,187 | +130.2% |
| 1851 | 164,035 | −16.4% |
| 1861 | 134,252 | −18.2% |
| 1871 | 123,310 | −8.2% |
| 1881 | 112,768 | −8.5% |
| 1891 | 98,251 | −12.9% |
| 1901 | 87,187 | −11.3% |
| 1911 | 83,966 | −3.7% |
| 1926 | 78,562 | −6.4% |
| 1936 | 77,614 | −1.2% |
| 1946 | 76,108 | −1.9% |
| 1951 | 75,061 | −1.4% |
| 1956 | 74,031 | −1.4% |
| 1961 | 71,439 | −3.5% |
| 1966 | 73,080 | +2.3% |
| 1971 | 77,315 | +5.8% |
| 1979 | 87,278 | +12.9% |
| 1981 | 88,591 | +1.5% |
| 1986 | 91,151 | +2.9% |
| 1991 | 91,624 | +0.5% |
| 1996 | 94,680 | +3.3% |
| 2002 | 101,546 | +7.3% |
| 2006 | 107,961 | +6.3% |
| 2011 | 113,707 | +5.3% |
| [2][3][4][5][6][7] | ||
County Waterford is colloquially known as "The Déise" (An Déise). Some time between the 4th and 8th centuries, a tribe of native Gaelic people called the Déisi were driven from southern county Meath/north Kildare, conquering and settling here. The ancient principality of the Déise is today roughly coterminous with the current Roman Catholic Diocese of Waterford and Lismore. The westernmost of the baronies are "Decies within Drum" and "Decies without Drum", separated by the Drum-Fineen hills.[8] There are many megalithic tombs and ogham stones[9] in the county. The Viking influence can still be seen with Reginald's Tower, one of the first buildings to use a bricks and mortar construction method in Ireland. Woodstown, a settlement dating to the 9th Century was discovered 5.5 kilometres west of Waterford city. It was the largest settlement outside of Scandinavia and the only large-scale 9th Century Viking settlement discovered to date in Western Europe. Other architectural features are products of the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland and its effects.
| County Tipperary | Northeast: County Kilkenny | |||
| County Cork | County Wexford | |||
| County Waterford | ||||
| Celtic Sea |
The area of the county is now covered by two local administrative authorities: Waterford County Council and Waterford City Council. They rank equally as first level local administrative units of the NUTS 3 South-East Region for Eurostat purposes. There are 34 LAU 1 entities in the Republic of Ireland. The remit of Waterford County Council includes some suburbs of the city not within the remit of Waterford City Council. Both local authorities are responsible for certain local services such as sanitation, planning and development, libraries, the collection of motor taxation, local roads and social housing.
The county is part of the South constituency for the purposes of European elections. For elections to Dáil Éireann, the county is divided between two constituencies: Waterford and Tipperary South. Together they return 7 deputies (TDs) to the Dáil. The Electoral (Amendment) Act 2009 defines the Waterford constituency as "The county of Waterford, except the part thereof which is comprised in the constituency of Tipperary South; and the city of Waterford."."[10]
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