The Four Provinces of Ireland

Ulster · 9 Leinster · 12 Munster · 6 Connacht · 5

Ulster — Cúige Uladh · 9 counties · the north

“KOO-ig-uh UL-uh”

Nine counties in the north of the island, six of which became Northern Ireland in 1920 and three of which did not. No other province has a border running through it, and no other has to be explained before it can be described.

Antrim · Aontroim Armagh · Ard Mhacha Cavan · An Cabhán Donegal · Dún na nGall Down · An Dún Fermanagh · Fear Manach Derry / Londonderry · Doire Monaghan · Muineachán Tyrone · Tír Eoghain

The history of Ulster →

Leinster — Cúige Laighean · 12 counties · the east

“KOO-ig-uh LY-un”

Twelve counties in the east, and the only province that is visibly two provinces stitched together. Leinster is the old kingdom of the Laigin plus the old kingdom of Meath — the fifth that used to be the fifth.

Carlow · Ceatharlach Dublin · Baile Átha Cliath Kildare · Cill Dara Kilkenny · Cill Chainnigh Laois · Laois Longford · An Longfort Louth · Lú Meath · An Mhí Offaly · Uíbh Fhailí Westmeath · An Iarmhí Wexford · Loch Garman Wicklow · Cill Mhantáin

The history of Leinster →

Munster — Cúige Mumhan · 6 counties · the south-west

“KOO-ig-uh MOO-un”

Six counties in the south-west, and the largest province by area. Munster is where the Eóganachta ruled from Cashel for five centuries, and where the family that ended them produced Brian Boru.

Clare · An Clár Cork · Corcaigh Kerry · Ciarraí Limerick · Luimneach Tipperary · Tiobraid Árann Waterford · Port Láirge

The history of Munster →

Connacht — Cúige Chonnacht · 5 counties · the west

“KOO-ig-uh KHUN-akht”

Five counties in the west, the smallest and least populous of the four — and the only one whose name is not a place but a family. Connachta means “the descendants of Conn”.

Galway · Gaillimh Leitrim · Liatroim Mayo · Maigh Eo Roscommon · Ros Comáin Sligo · Sligeach

The history of Connacht →

Four provinces, and a word that means a fifth

Why a province is called a fifth
The Irish for a province is cúige, which means “a fifth part”. There are four. The word is the fossil of an older arrangement in which Ireland was divided into five, and the missing fifth is usually said to be Mide, Meath, which was absorbed into Leinster after the Norman invasion. The tidy story is not quite the whole one: in the medieval period there were often more than five, and the number moved about for centuries.
They were fixed by an administrator, not by history
The provinces stopped shifting in 1610, when the administration of James I set them permanently. Everything before that date is a moving picture of kingdoms rising and falling; everything after it is the map we still use.
A province ruled a kingdom, not a county
Each of the old fifths was ruled by a rí ruirech, a king of over-kings: a man who ruled other kings rather than land directly. Under him sat over-kingdoms, under those the smaller kingdoms, and under those the túatha. The counties that make up the provinces today were laid over that structure centuries later by an English administration, which is why county borders so often make no sense of the older world beneath them.
They govern nothing
The provinces have no administrative or political function in either state today. They survive as historical and cultural units — and, more than anything else, in sport: the rugby provinces and the GAA's provincial championships are why most people under forty know which province they are from.

The -ster on the end of three of them Ulster, Leinster and Munster share an ending that Connacht does not, and it is usually explained as the Old Norse staðr, “place” — the ending on Scottish names like Lybster and Scrabster. That explanation is popular and it may well be wrong. The likelier account, and the one the reference articles give first, is that the ending is tír, the Irish for “land”, borrowed into Norse and handed back: the Norsemen knew Ulster as Ulaztir, the land of the Ulaid, which came into English as Ullister or Ulvester and contracted to Ulster. For Leinster the sources give both possibilities and settle on neither. Either way the shape is the same, a people's name plus a word meaning land, and either way Connacht escaped it, because it was named for a dynasty rather than a territory.

Quick answers

How many provinces are there in Ireland?

Four: Ulster, Leinster, Munster and Connacht. The Irish word for one, cúige, means “a fifth”, which is a survival from a time when there were five — the fifth, Meath, was absorbed into Leinster.

How many counties are in each province?

Ulster has 9, Leinster has 12, Munster has 6 and Connacht has 5 — 32 in all.

Is Ulster the same as Northern Ireland?

No. Ulster is a province of nine counties. Northern Ireland is a political unit made up of six of them — Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone. Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal are in Ulster and in the Republic of Ireland.

What is the largest province in Ireland?

Munster is the largest by area and Leinster the most populous. Connacht is the smallest and least populous, and Ulster is second in both.

Do the provinces have any power today?

None. They have had no administrative or political function since long before either state existed. They survive as cultural and historical units, and most visibly in sport — the rugby provinces and the GAA provincial championships.

Why is Meath called the fifth province?

Because it was one. Mide, meaning “middle”, was a kingdom from the 1st century to the 12th, stretching from the Irish Sea to the Shannon at its greatest extent. It was gradually merged into Leinster after the Norman invasion, largely because the Pale straddled both.

Sources

All 32 counties, one by one · The counties in Irish · The eras of Irish history · Where the surnames come from

The four provinces of Ireland

Ulster — Cúige Uladh · 9 counties · the north

Leinster — Cúige Laighean · 12 counties · the east

Munster — Cúige Mumhan · 6 counties · the south-west

Connacht — Cúige Chonnacht · 5 counties · the west