Towns & cities

The Republic has five cities by statute — Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford — with Kilkenny keeping the title by charter and custom. Northern Ireland has five: Belfast, Derry, Lisburn, Armagh and Newry. Armagh, the smallest, is a city because it is the ecclesiastical capital, not because of its size.

Waterford. Vikings first settled near the site in 853 and abandoned it around 902; they returned in 914 under Jarl Ottar and built what became Ireland's first city. Its Irish name, Port Láirge, is unrelated to the Norse one — Veðrafjǫrðr, the ram fjord, is where the English name comes from.

93 — the cities and the largest and most historic towns, at least one in every county. There are hundreds more, and we add them as we can.

Dublin, with 1,263,219 people in the city and suburbs at the 2022 census. Belfast is the largest in Northern Ireland at 291,386, and Cork the second largest in the Republic at 222,526.

Almost every Irish placename is Irish underneath. The English forms are attempts by English-speaking surveyors and clerks to write down what they heard, which is why Baile Átha Cliath became Dublin (from a different name entirely, Duibhlinn) and Cill Chainnigh became Kilkenny. The Irish name is usually the one that tells you what the place is.

Drogheda in County Louth, with 44,135 people at the 2022 census, is the largest urban area in the Republic that is not a city. In Northern Ireland the Craigavon urban area is the largest settlement outside Belfast and Derry.