Barony (Ireland) - Creation

Creation

The island of Ireland was "shired" into counties in two distinct periods: the east and south during the Anglo-Norman period (from the 1169 invasion to the early fourteenth century) and the rest in the Tudor conquest of the sixteenth century. "Barony" was used in three overlapping but distinct senses in the early period:

• a "feudal barony" was an honour or large manor
• a "parliamentary barony" was a rank of the peerage of Ireland, giving the right to sit in the Parliament of Ireland
• an "administrative barony" was a unit for taxation purposes.

Over the centuries, these senses diverged, and many administrative baronies have never been associated with feudal or noble titles. Spurious "barony" titles have been sold by using the names of administrative baronies for which there is no corresponding hereditary or prescriptive barony. In counties Louth and Meath, the administrative subdivisions were called "baronies" from the beginning, originally as portions given by Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath to his vassals. Further south the name "cantred" was used till the fifteenth century.

Most (administrative) baronies corresponded to the túath ("country") or trícha cét ("thirty hundred ") of a Gaelic chief. However, sometimes baronies combined small territories, or split a large one, or were created without regard for the earlier boundaries. 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.

Sir John Perrot's commissioners reported 184 "cantreds, otherwise called hundreds or baronies" in 1589; William Petty reported 252 baronies in 1672.

The civil parishes were originally subdivisions of baronies, each in turn a collection of townlands. However, barony and county boundaries were gradually rationalised to reduce anomalies and detached parts, whereas this happened less often for civil parishes. As a result, many parishes came to straddle barony and county boundaries.

Baronies were sometimes subdivided, and occasionally combined. The parts of a subdivided barony were called half-baronies, but had the same legal standing. Some subdivisions came about when new counties were formed, and the new boundary split a pre-existing barony. 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 nineteenth century, when qualifiers "Upper"/"Lower"(/"Middle"), "North"/"South", or "East/"West" were used for the half-baronies. The baronies of Iveagh and Muskerry were each subdivided twice; thus, Upper and Lower Iveagh each have Upper and Lower Halves, and East and West Muskerry each have East and West Divisions. When County Tipperary was split into North and South Ridings in 1838, the barony of Kilnamanagh was split into Upper and Lower half-baronies.