Smallcounty or Small County () is a historical

barony Barony may refer to: * Barony, the peerage, office of, or territory held by a baron * Barony, the title and land held in fealty by a feudal baron * Barony (county division), a type of administrative or geographical division in parts of the British ...

in eastern

County Limerick County Limerick () is a western Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Reg ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. Settlements in the barony include

Hospital A hospital is a healthcare institution providing patient treatment with specialized Medical Science, health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically ...

, Herbertstown, Fedamore and Knockainy.

Location

Located in

, the barony of Smallcounty is bordered by six other baronies: * Clanwilliam (County Limerick), to the north, * Coonagh, to the north-east, * Clanwilliam (County Tipperary), to the east, * Coshlea, to the south * Coshma, to the west, the ancient territory of the

Uí Fidgenti The Uí Fidgenti, Fidgeinti, Fidgheinte, Fidugeinte, Fidgente, or Fidgeinte ( or ;In the pronunciation, the -d- is silent, and the -g- becomes a glide, producing what might be anglicized ''Feeyenti'' or ''Feeyenta''. "descendants of, or of the ...

clan * Pubblebrien, to the north-west

Legal context

Baronies were created after the

Norman invasion of Ireland The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland took place during the late 12th century, when Anglo-Normans gradually conquered and acquired large swathes of land in Ireland over which the monarchs of England then claimed sovereignty. The Anglo-Normans ...

as subdivisions of counties and were used for administration. While baronies continue to be officially defined units, they have been administratively obsolete since 1898. However, they continue to be used in land registration and specification such as in planning permissions. In many cases, a barony corresponds to an earlier

Gaelic Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...

túath which had submitted to the Crown.

History

‘’An Déis Bheag’’ was the name of a tribe from

late Antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

. The English form of the barony’s name may have been based on this name This barony lay partly in the

Poor law union A poor law union was a geographical territory, and early local government unit, in Great Britain and Ireland. Poor law unions existed in England and Wales from 1834 to 1930 for the administration of poor relief. Prior to the Poor Law Amendment ...

Kilmallock Kilmallock () is a town in south County Limerick, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, near the border with County Cork, 30 km south of Limerick city. There is a Dominican Priory in the town and King John's Castle (Kilmallock), King's Castle (or K ...

, and partly in that of Limerick. In 1846, the total number of tenements valued was 2942. Some officers of the Regiment of the

Lord President of Connaught The Lord President of Connaught was a military leader with wide-ranging powers, reaching into the civil sphere, in the English government of Connacht, Connaught in Ireland, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The office was created in 1569 ...

, Sir Charles Coote, were rewarded for their services in the Cromwellian wars with land in the barony. They are listed as Col. Chidley Coote, Col. Richard Coote, Major Ormsby, Major King and Captain St. George. The land was rated at £800 per 1000 acres - the second highest in the county. In 1831, the population was 22,674; in 1841 it was 21,527. The 1841 census shows how families in the barony were employed.

Civil parishes

There are 18

civil parishes In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishe ...

in the barony. The following civil parishes are wholly contained within the barony: * Ballinard *Ballinlough * Ballynamona *Cahircorney *Glenogra *

A house of the

Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there ...

gave its name to this place. The house had been established by 1215.Gwynn, Medieval Religious Houses (Ireland) 336 * Kilcullane *Kilfrush * Knockainy (i.e. the hill of

Áine Áine () is an Irish goddess of summer, wealth, and sovereignty. She is associated with midsummer and the sun,MacKillop, James (1998) ''Dictionary of Celtic Mythology'' Oxford: Oxford University Press pp.10, 16, 128 and is sometimes represent ...

). The barony also contains parts of the following civil parishes: *Athneasy *Ballycahane *Fedamore * Kilbreedymajor (or Kilbreedy Major) *Kilpeacon *Kilteely (This parish is one half of the

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Kilteely-Dromkeen. The Dromkeen part is a civil parish in its own right in the neighbouring barony of Clanwilliam.) *Monasternenagh *Tullabracky *Uregare.

External links

* Source given is "Ordnance survey".

References

From : From other sources: {{reflist Baronies of County Limerick