County Carlow, Ireland Genealogy

Ireland County Carlow

County Carlow is one of twelve inland counties of Ireland in the southeast and is part of the province of Leinster. The County is named after the town of Carlow. Its greatest length is about 29 miles from north to south and its breadth from east to west is about 20.5 miles with an area of about 346 square miles (896.1 sq km).

Prior to the twelfth century, the County was part of the Ui Kinsellaigh territory, consisting Carlow and parts of Wicklow and Wexford. The Normans invaded the Carlow in the twelfth century and the land came into the possession of Strongbow, the Norman leader. The town of Carlow was an important Norman stronghold and was walled in 1361 to protect it from the neighboring Gaelic chieftains, who eventually captured the town in 1405. The County joined the Catholic Confederacy in 1641, which was defeated by Cromwell’s forces in 1650.

The Great Famine of 1845-1847 badly affected the County. The population fell from about 86,228 in 1841 to 68,078 in 1851. Ten thousand people died of starvation or other impacts of the Great Famine. The population continued to decrease reaching 34,476 in 1921. The population was 50,349 in 2006. Carlow is predominately Roman Catholic. In 1891, the percentage of Roman Catholic, Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Methodist was 88.3%, 10.9%, 0.3% and 0.4%. Overtime, the Roman Catholics increased to 88.8% in 2006, while the Church of Ireland, Presbyterians and Methodists decreased to 4.3%, 0.2% and 0.2%, respectively, with other or no religions increasing to about 5%.

General County Research Information
Further information about County Carlow is available at the GenUKI site.

Civil Jurisdictions and Parish Research Information
A map of the Civil Parishes of County Carlow is available at Irish Times site.