Munster
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.
For most of the early medieval period Munster meant the Eóganachta, the dynasty that ruled from the Rock of Cashel and gave the province its kings. Around them sat a crowd of smaller kingdoms whose names still sit under the map — Iarmuman in the west, Osraige, Uí Liatháin, Uí Fidgenti, Éile, Múscraige, Ciarraige Luachra, Corcu Duibne, Corcu Baiscinn, the Déisi.
In the 9th century Norse fleets came, and the towns they founded are the province's three cities: Cork, Waterford and Limerick. All three were Norse ports before they were anything else, and all three still carry Irish names that have nothing to do with their English ones — Corcaigh, Luimneach and Port Láirge.
The Eóganachta held Munster until the 10th century, when the Dál gCais rose out of Thomond, north of the Shannon. Their leaders were the ancestors of the O'Briens, and the most famous of them, Brian Boru, went from king of Munster to High King of Ireland. Osraige, roughly modern Kilkenny, broke away from Munster around the same period and ended up in Leinster, which is why the province has six counties rather than seven.
Munster is the largest of the four provinces by area. Cork is its biggest city, with Limerick and Waterford after it. Kerry and west Cork hold Gaeltacht districts, and the province gave the language one of its three surviving dialects.
A homeland is where the name is first recorded and densest, not a boundary — people moved. The whole map of the surnames →
How many counties are in Munster?
6: Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford.
What is Munster in Irish?
Cúige Mumhan — “the fifth of An Mhumhain” — pronounced roughly “KOO-ig-uh MOO-un”. The province itself is An Mhumhain, said “on WOO-in”.
What Mumhain means — what should you know?
Cúige Mumhan is “the fifth of Mumha”, Mumha being the old name of the territory itself. What that name means is the part nobody here can vouch for. Connacht is plainly “the descendants of Conn”, and Ulster and Leinster are named for peoples, the Ulaid and the Laigin, but the origin of Mumha is not something the standard reference articles settle, and the derivations offered for it elsewhere, including a goddess of the name, are not ones we can source. So it is left open. If you have a solid citation, we would be glad of it.
Does Munster have any official status today?
No. The provinces have had no administrative or political function for centuries. They survive as historical and cultural units, and most visibly in sport — the rugby provinces and the GAA's provincial championships.
Know Munster better than this page does? Tell us. · All four provinces · The counties in Irish