Modern Existence
While baronies continue to be officially defined units, they are no longer used for many administrative purposes. Their official status is illustrated by Placenames Orders made since 2003, where official Irish names of baronies are listed under "Administrative units".
Baronies continue to be used in land registration, and specification such as in planning permissions. For example, the form for registration of a freehold property includes a schedule "To contain description of the property, giving area, townland, barony and county, or, if in a city or urban district, the street or road and city or urban district". Where two townlands in the same county have the same name, they will be disambiguated in official references as "in the barony of ...".
Barony boundaries have remained essentially unchanged since 1898. An exception occurs when land is reclaimed from the sea, whereupon the maritime boundary of the coastal land units will be extended accordingly. For example, a 1994 statutory instrument extended the boundary of the Barony of Arklow, along with the boundaries of the county (Wicklow), the district electoral division (Arklow Rural), the civil parish (Arklow), and the townlands (Rock Big, Rock Little, and Money Big).
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. Most markedly, the entire territory of the small barony of Kilculliheen was moved from County Waterford to County Kilkenny. Likewise in 1976, when suburbs of Drogheda were transferred from County Meath to County Louth, barony boundaries were not adjusted.
The marginal relevance of baronies means many people have no idea which barony they live in. However some remain a focus for local patriotism. Some clubs of the Gaelic Athletic Association bear the name of the barony in which they are located; likewise some public houses and older provincial hotels, which may display the baronial arms on signage.
Read more about this topic: Barony (Ireland)
Famous quotes containing the words modern and/or existence:
“The higher processes are all processes of simplification. The novelist must learn to write, and then he must unlearn it; just as the modern painter learns to draw, and then learns when utterly to disregard his accomplishment, when to subordinate it to a higher and truer effect.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“This seems to be advanced as the surest basis for our belief in the existence of gods, that there is no race so uncivilized, no one in the world so barbarous that his mind has no inkling of a belief in gods.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)