Tipperary

County Tipperary (Irish: Contae Thiobraid Árann) is one of the 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland and one of the 32 counties of Ireland. It is located in the province of Munster. It was named after the town of Tipperary (Irish: Tiobraid Árann).

Tipperary is the sixth largest of Ireland’s 32 counties in area and 11th largest in population^[1]. It is the third largest of Munster’s 6 counties in size and the third largest in population.

Tipperary was one of the first Irish counties to be established in the 13th century. For all government administrative purposes the county is divided into North Tipperary (county town: Nenagh) and South Tipperary (county town: Clonmel). This division dates back to the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, the county's two "ridings" having had separate assize courts for much longer. The use of riding for the divisions was a historical misnomer, since the word derives from the dividing of an area into three parts. The expression "riding" has been discontinued for official purposes since 2002 (Local Government Act, 2001 section 10 and schedule 5).