gentleman, the late Jeffery Foot, Esq. of Limerick, who furnished them with many interesting particulars relative to the Topography of the City. The Nobility and Gentry of the County and City of Limerick have liberally patronised this undertaking. The Authors assure them, that they deeply feel the obligation, and that they have spared neither labour or research to render this Work worthy, in some degree, of the important district on which it treats. Should it meet the approbation of those to whom the district is best known, they will find their highest reward in the contemplation, that they may, in any degree, have contributed to raise the respectability, or promote the interests of the place that gave them birth. The Index to the topographical part of the Work is so constructed as to present a complete Guide to every object of interest in the County and City. Under each Parish in the County will be found every Gentleman's seat, with the name of its possessor, and all the monuments of antiquity and other matters of curious research, which it contains ; while in the Index to the Topography of the City, all the public buildings, charitable institutions, &c. are properly classed and arranged. COUNTY AND CITY OF LIMERICK. POLITICAL AND MILITARY HISTORY. MUNSTER was originally divided into five parts, viz. Towoun, (Thomond) or North Munster; Deswoun, or South Munster; Heirwoun, or West Munster; Meanwoun, or Middle Munster; and Urwoun, or the front of Munster. These divisions were afterwards reduced to two, namely, West and South Munster. Before the arrival of the English this kingdom or province contained the eight following principalities:-1st. Hy-Breoghan, the present county of Waterford; 2d. Osrajii, (Ossory) comprising part of the county of Tipperary and the Queen's County; 3d. Ormond, comprehending the baronies of Upper and Lower Ormond, and those of Owny and Arra in Tipperary; 4th. Thomond, the present county of Clare; 5th. Aine-Cliach, or Eoganach Aine-Cliach, the present county of Limerick; 6th. Cerrigia or Ciar, now Kerry; 7th. Aoibh Liathain, the northern, and 8th. Corcaluighe, the southern part of the county of Cork. Hereditary chieftains governed these principalities, of whom the most powerful was styled King of Munster. Camden tells us, that North or West Munster was anciently inhabited by the Luceni, Velabri, and Uterini; and South Munster by the Vodiæ or Oudiæ and Coriondi. He continues, "Where Ireland, stretching towards the west along the Cantabrian Ocean, looks towards Gallicia in Spain, at a great distance to the south-west, Orosius informs us, that there lived in former ages the Velabri and Luceni. The Luceni (who seem to derive their name and origin from the Lucensii in Gallicia, on the opposite coast of Spain, and some traces of whose name remain in the barony of Lyxnaw) were, in my opinion, settled in the county of Kerry, and the neighbouring Conoglogh on the river Shannon." Doctor Smith, in his History of Cork, countenances the opinion of the Spanish origin of the Munster Irish, not only from the testimony of all the old Irish manuscripts, but from the remains of their language and ancient customs, which are to be found among the Vascones and Cantabrians. In Cantabria, the peasants still wear Irish courrans, or * O'Flaherty calls the name of the county Hy-Fignerta. |