County Tipperary, Ireland Genealogy

Ireland County Tipperary.

Tipperary is the largest inland county in Ireland and is divided into two government administrative areas; Northern Tipperary (county town – Nenagh) and Southern Tipperary (county town – Clonmel). It is part of the province of Munster. The name Tipperary is taken from the Irish 'Tiobraid Arann', which means 'the well of Era', referring to the River Ara. The county covers 1,661 square miles (4,303 sq km). Its length is 74 miles from the corner of the Araglin river on the bondary south-west of Clogheen to where the Little Brosna river enters the Shannon. Its breadth is 45 miles from the western boundardy between Hospital and Emly and Carrickdoon Hill on the eastern boundary. Tipperary was part of the old Gaelic territory of Ormond and Thomond. The Normans invaded in 1172. In 1641, the Irish and Norman chieftains of Tipperary became part of the Catholic Confederacy and were defeated by Cromwell in 1649. The lands of those who rebelled were given to the Cromwell’s soldiers and English adventurers. Most of the soldiers sold their land to their officers and others creating large estates in the county.

The population was 346,896 in 1821 and grew to 435,553. It was greatly affected by the potato famine and its population decreased to 331,567 in 1851. The population continued to decrease until it was only 141,015 in 1926. In 2006, the population was 149,244. The predominant religion in the county is Roman Catholic. In 1871, 93.8% of the population were Roman Catholic followed by the Church of Ireland at 5.4% with 0.3% each being Presbyterian and Methodists. Overtime there has been a slight increase in the percentage of Roman Catholic to 96.9% in 1926. In 1926, the Church of Ireland decreased to 2.6% with 0.16% and 0.121% being Presbyterian and Methodist, respectively.

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

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