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Counties and Countries in Britain and Ireland
by Mike Spathaky
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(c) Mike Spathaky 1995, 1996, 1999
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Many foreigners, and not a few British and Irish people, seem
to get confused by the names of the countries and counties
which make up these offshore islands. Americans in particular
seem to have great difficulty. A county in the USA is a
subdivision of a State and is quite small whereas over here it
is the main subdivision of a whole country. In the USA, county
names are indistinguishable from say township names, so
usually seem to have the word County appended. So you have
Cumberland County, PA and Cumberland Twp, Greene Co., PA, a
couple of hundred miles apart. In England almost all county
names are unique, though it's different in Ireland. More on
that later...
Whereas in the USA the important divisions within the USA seem
to be the STATE, the COUNTY and the TOWNSHIP, over here the
important divisions, at least for genealogists, are the
COUNTRY, the COUNTY and the PARISH.
COUNTRIES
The island grouping situated off the north-west coast of
continental Europe is referred to by geographers as the
British Isles. This phrase is repugnant to many Irish people
who prefer the term "Britain and Ireland".
If you ask residents of these islands which country they live
in, their reply will normally refer to England, Wales,
Scotland or Ireland. The Isle of Man is also a separate
country (a self-governing Crown dependency). The Channel
Islands - Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney and Sark - are also
separate Crown dependencies and each has its own legislative
assembly.
All other islands of the British Isles (some quite large) are
part of one of these countries. So the Isle of Wight is a
county of England (although before 1974 it was part of
Hampshire). The Isles of Scilly have similar status to a
county with some unique features. They are part of England.
Anglesey was a county of Wales before 1974. Now it is a part
of Gwynedd. The Hebrides, Shetlands and Orkney Isles are part
of Scotland.
Great Britain is the name given to the collective grouping of
England, Wales and Scotland. The United Kingdom consists of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Ireland was wholly part of
the United Kingdom until 1922. Now only the six counties
comprising Northern Ireland are. The remaining 26 counties
comprise the independent republic of Ireland. The Isle of Man
and the Channel Isles are not part of the United Kingdom.
ENGLISH COUNTY NAMES
There was a major reorganisation of the English counties in
1974. The pre-1974 counties had by-and-large existed since the
middle ages and are of most interest to genealogists, although
boundary changes were not unknown in the 19th century. Further
piecemeal, but widespread, changes occurred in England, Wales
and Scotland in the late 1990s. These last have not yet been
incorporated into this article
Most English counties are self-evidently county names, without
the possibility of confusion with towns or cities with the
same name - self-evident that is to those with a reasonable
knowledge of English geography! This has been achieved in many
cases by the addition of the suffix "-shire" to a name that
might otherwise be confused with a city. So for example I live
just outside the city of Leicester but within the county
called Leicestershire. There is no need to adopt the American
usage of adding the word county after a county name as in say
Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. Cumberland, England is
recognised as a county (or rather was until 1974) because
there is no town of Cumberland in England.
Modern usage has even dropped the -shire suffix from county
names where it is not needed. Thus we no longer refer to
Devonshire; Devon alone is sufficient, as is Cornwall or Kent
or Norfolk. There are no towns with these names. However old
usages die hard and the phrases Devonshire teas, Devonshire
clotted cream, survive. The Cavendish family of Derbyshire,
when created earls and then dukes, chose Devonshire as their
title, presumably because there was already an Earl of Derby.
The Cavendishes are still dukes of Devonshire and still live
at Chatsworth, Derbyshire, off the rents paid them by my
ancestors.
An exception to the above is Durham. There is a city of Durham
and a county of the same name, so the county is referred to as
County Durham. Note that the word County comes before the
name, not after as in US usage. Don't ask me why it is not
Durhamshire. It is not.
Pre-1974 county names, or at least the longer ones, have
generally recognised abbreviations, which I believe were first
standardised by the General Post Office. So Leicestershire is
Leics., Hampshire is Hants., Yorkshire is Yorks. These
abbreviations are falling into disuse as postcodes become more
used and because of the 1974 re-organisation. However
genealogists may come across the abbreviations. The Chapman
three-letter codes for English counties are hardly used or
understood outside genealogy and should not be used for
addressing mail.
WELSH COUNTIES
The pre-1974 counties of Wales all had the suffix "-shire" in
their English language names except Anglesey and Flint.
However only some contained a county town of the same name,
and in those cases the suffix was often dropped. All the Welsh
counties also had Welsh language versions of their names,
usually starting with the separate word sir, Welsh for shire.
For example Merionethshire (often just Merioneth) was called
Sir Meirionydd in Welsh. Five of the eight post-1974 Welsh
counties have Welsh names (without -shire or Sir). The other
three are Mid, South and West Glamorgan. [Wales was again re-
organised in the 1990s when some 1974 counties disappeared
and pre-1974 ones reappeared as districts.]
SCOTTISH COUNTIES
Most Scottish counties end in -shire, whether it is necessary
to distinguish the county from a town or not. Some counties
end in -s or -ss before the -shire is added so we have
Kinross-shire, Inverness-shire, but Dumfriesshire (no hyphen)
and Peebleshire (the s dropped). Note the spellings of the
town of Dumbarton and the county of Dunbartonshire. Scotland
is now (since 1975) divided into REGIONS which are much larger
than the old counties. Many of the old county names remain as
Districts or parts of Districts. The county of Angus was
earlier called Forfarshire.
IRISH COUNTIES AND PROVINCES
The shiring of Ireland was a British imposition of the
seventeenth century. County names invariably have the word
county added before them, as in County Armagh, County Clare,
County Dublin and County Kerry, whether or not there exists a
town or city of the same name. Two counties had their names
changed on independence: Kings County became County Offaly and
Queens County became County Leix (formerly spelled Laoighis).
The older division of Ireland was into four provinces, Ulster,
Munster, Leinster and Connaught and this is still in popular
usage (and for example for sporting purposes - there are
inter-provincial competitions in Rugby football and Gaelic
football). It is incorrect to equate Ulster, which has nine
counties with modern Northern Ireland which has six.
REFERENCE
For a full list of pre-1974 county names I suggest looking at
an pre-1974 edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica under
"England", "Wales" etc., or at a pre-1974 atlas.
Mike Spathaky
30th September 1995
Minor corrections:
3rd January 1996
18th May 1997
16th March 1999
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