TheNorth Liberties(Irish:Na Líbeartaí Thuaidh[1]) orNorth Liberties of Limerickis abaronyofCounty LimerickinIreland,on the north bank of theRiver Shannon,between the centre ofLimerick Cityto the east andCounty Clareto the north and west. It comprises parts of 17townlandsin threecivil parishes:Killeely, St. Munchin's, and St. Nicholas.[1]
The area of the North Liberties was originally part ofBunrattybarony, now in County Clare.[2]It was created by King John in 1216 and granted to the City of Limerick. The 1609royal charterfromJames I of Englandfor themunicipal corporationof Limerick granted it portions of rural land outside themunicipal borough,and erected the whole area into acorporate county,the "county of the city of Limerick", separate from the "county-at-large" of Limerick, and with its ownsheriffandgrand jury.[3]The rural areas, called the "liberties", were inside the county of the city but outside the borough boundary. There were three parts to the liberties: the small "North Liberties", the larger "South Liberties" east of the borough on the opposite bank of the River Shannon, andScattery Islandfar to the west at theMouth of the Shannon.[3]In the 1650s, after theCromwellian conquest of Ireland,the North Liberties were included in theCivil Surveybut not theDown Survey,whose supervisorWilliam Pettywas himself awarded the lands.[2]TheMunicipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840detached all the liberties from the county of the city and attached them to the county-at-large.[3]The majority of the North Liberties was therefore annexed to the County of Clare. The 1846Parliamentary Gazetteerand the census through to 1871 regarded the North Liberties as having been annexed to the barony ofPubblebrien,the rest of which was adjacent but south across the Shannon.[3]However, the 1881 census treated the North Liberties as a barony in its own right.[4][5]A 2008 extension to the boundary of Limerick city encompasses some of entire area of the North Liberties, however some still remains within the County of Clare.[6]
Sources
edit- Hodkinson, Brian (2007)."A History and Archaeology of the Liberties of Limerick to c.1650"(PDF).North Munster Antiquarian Journal.47(4): 39–66.Retrieved8 June2020.
References
edit- ^ab"North Liberties".Placenames Database of Ireland.Retrieved21 August2013.
- ^abSimington, Robert C. (1938).The civil survey.Vol. IV. Irish Manuscripts Commission. p. 399.Retrieved21 August2013.
- ^abcd"Limerick".The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland: Adapted to the New Poor-law, Franchise, Municipal and Ecclesiastical Arrangements, and Compiled with a Special Reference to the Lines of Railroad and Canal Communication, as Existing in 1844-45.Vol. II: D-M. A. Fullarton and Company. 1846. p. 630.
- ^Crawford, E. Margaret (2003).Counting the People: A Survey Of the Irish Censuses,1813-1911.Four Courts. p. 94.ISBN9781851826735.
- ^"Census of Ireland 1881: Supplement to Alphabetical index of Townlands and Towns of Ireland".p. 17.Retrieved21 August2013.
- ^"S.I. No. 53/2008 - Limerick City Boundary Alteration Order 2008".Irish Statute Book.Retrieved21 August2013.