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Updates: 

There have been some changes to the regions. Fabien Antoine first put me on the trail of them.

The latest version of the FIPS standard is called "Geopolitical Entities and Codes", published in 2010-04. It shows Ireland divided into administrative counties rather than traditional ones, as listed in a supplementary table below. Update 16 to GEC is dated 2014-06-30. It assigns new codes to reflect the changes in local government.

Clive Carpenter informed me that there would be a change in Ireland's local government structure effective 2014-06. Limerick and Waterford cities merged with their administrative counties, and the administrative counties of North and South Tipperary merged. The secondary level consists mainly of municipal districts.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter II-3 is dated 2011-12-15. It changes the code for Cork (formerly IE-C), to avoid duplicating the code for Connaught province.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number II-1, dated 2010-02-03, has changes to the listing for Ireland, but nothing that affects data reported on this site. The only change is adding the prefix IE- explicitly to each province code.

Change Notice 8 to FIPS PUB 10-4 is dated 2002-06-28. The only change under Ireland is that the Gaelic names of the counties were added as alternate names.

Country overview: 

Short name	IRELAND
ISO code	IE
FIPS code	EI
Languages	English (en), Gaelic (ga)
Time zone	0 ~
Capital	Dublin

 

At the beginning of the 20th century, the whole island of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom. Irish patriots repeatedly argued and fought for independence. Finally, on 1921-12-06, the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed. By its terms, Ireland became an independent country with dominion status, although Northern Ireland was to be allowed to make a separate decision. The name of the new country was the Irish Free State (Gaelic: Saorstát Éireann). On 1922-12-12, six counties in the north voted to revert to the United Kingdom. On 1949-04-18, the Irish Free State broke off its remaining links with Britain under a new constitution, becoming the Irish Republic (Poblacht na hÉireann).

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Irland
2. Dutch: Ierse Republiek, Ierland, Republiek Ierland (formal)
3. English: Republic of Ireland (formal), Irish Free State (obsolete)
4. Finnish: Irlanti
5. French: Irlande f
6. Gaelic: Éire (formal)
7. German: Irland, Eire n, Irische Republik f, Republik f Irland n (formal)
8. Icelandic: Írland
9. Italian: Irlanda f
10. Norwegian: Irland
11. Portuguese: Irlanda f
12. Russian: Ирландия
13. Spanish: Irlanda, República f de Irlanda f (formal)
14. Swedish: Irland
15. Turkish: İrlanda

Origin of name: 

Éire + land. Éire is generally thought to be from Ériu, a pagan goddess.

Primary subdivisions: 

Ireland is divided into 26 (traditional) counties.

County	HASC	ISO	Pr	Pop-2016	Pop-2011	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Gaelic	Capital
Carlow	IE.CW	CW	L	56,875	54,612	896	346	Ceatharlach	Carlow
Cavan	IE.CN	CN	U	76,183	73,183	1,891	730	An Cabhán	Cavan
Clare	IE.CE	CE	M	118,627	117,196	3,188	1,231	An Clár	Ennis
Cork	IE.CK	CO	M	542,196	519,032	7,460	2,880	Corcaigh	Cork
Donegal	IE.DL	DL	U	158,755	161,137	4,831	1,865	Dún na nGall	Lifford
Dublin	IE.DN	D	L	1,345,402	1,273,069	922	356	Baile Átha Cliath	Dublin
Galway	IE.GY	G	C	258,552	250,653	5,940	2,293	Gaillimh	Galway
Kerry	IE.KY	KY	M	147,554	145,502	4,701	1,815	Ciarraí	Tralee
Kildare	IE.KE	KE	L	222,130	210,312	1,694	654	Cill Dara	Naas
Kilkenny	IE.KK	KK	L	99,118	95,419	2,062	796	Cill Chainnigh	Kilkenny
Laois	IE.LS	LS	L	84,732	80,559	1,720	664	Laoise	Portlaoise
Leitrim	IE.LM	LM	C	31,972	31,798	1,525	589	Liatroim	Carrick on Shannon
Limerick	IE.LK	LK	M	195,175	191,809	2,686	1,037	Luimneach	Limerick
Longford	IE.LD	LD	L	40,810	39,000	1,044	403	An Longfort	Longford
Louth	IE.LH	LH	L	128,375	122,897	823	318	Lú	Dundalk
Mayo	IE.MO	MO	C	130,425	130,638	5,398	2,084	Maigh Eo	Castlebar
Meath	IE.MH	MH	L	194,942	184,135	2,336	902	An Mhí	Trim
Monaghan	IE.MN	MN	U	61,273	60,483	1,291	498	Muineachán	Monaghan
Offaly	IE.OY	OY	L	78,003	76,687	1,998	771	Uíbh Fhailí	Tullamore
Roscommon	IE.RN	RN	C	64,436	64,065	2,463	951	Ros Comáin	Roscommon
Sligo	IE.SO	SO	C	65,375	65,393	1,796	693	Sligeach	Sligo
Tipperary	IE.TY	TA	M	160,441	158,754	4,255	1,643	Tiobraid Árann	Clonmel (S), Nenagh (N)
Waterford	IE.WD	WD	M	116,401	113,795	1,838	710	Port Láirge	Waterford
Westmeath	IE.WH	WH	L	88,396	86,164	1,763	681	An Iarmhí	Mullingar
Wexford	IE.WX	WX	L	149,605	145,320	2,351	908	Loch Garman	Wexford
Wicklow	IE.WW	WW	L	142,332	136,640	2,025	782	Cill Mhantáin	Wicklow
26 counties				4,757,976	4,588,252	68,897	26,600
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. Based on Ireland's Statutory County Codes, used on license plates, etc., with minor differences (e.g. TN and TS for Tipperary North and South). Pr: Traditional provinces (see list below). Pop-2016: 2016-04-24 census - Preliminary (source [8]). Pop-2011: 2011-04-10 census (source [1]). Gaelic: Name of county in Gaelic Capital: See note

 

Note: Sources disagree about some capitals (county seats). The capital of Laois is Portlaoise. The same city is known as Maryborough, and has been known by both names throughout the 20th century. The name Maryborough was more common in English-language sources up to ~1955; after that, Portlaoise, or one of its variant spellings (Port Laoighis, Portlaoighise, etc.), was preferred. The sources seem to be divided on the capital of Meath: some say it's Trim (Baile Átha Troim), while others say Navan (An Uaimh). Nenagh is the capital of North Tipperary, and Clonmel, South Tipperary. Finally, most sources say that the capital of Waterford is Waterford, but a few of them say that it's Dungarvan. Here, Dungarvan is the capital of Waterford administrative county, while Waterford itself is an administratively separate city.

Further subdivisions:

Ireland has administrative counties, electoral counties, and what I will call traditional counties. Most administrative counties have the same name and extent as traditional counties. The exceptions are four traditional counties that each contain an administrative county and a city, all of the same name (Cork, Galway, Limerick, and Waterford); one traditional county that is divided into two administrative counties (Tipperary); and one traditional county that is divided into three administrative counties and a city (Dublin). The electoral counties are election districts, and correspond to one or two traditional counties or a portion of a traditional county. The cities were known as county boroughs until 2001.

In common with the ISO standard, I list the traditional counties. The FIPS standard listed traditional counties, also, but it was superseded in 2010 by the GEC standard, which lists administrative counties. With the Local Government Reform Act of 2014, some administrative counties were merged, and the GEC codes were changed to take account of this. This table summarizes the successive situations.

Post-2014	Typ	GEC	GENC	Pre-2014	Typ	GEC	Traditional	FIPS
Carlow	u	EI01	IE-CW	Carlow	u	EI01	Carlow	EI01
Cavan	u	EI02	IE-CN	Cavan	u	EI02	Cavan	EI02
Clare	u	EI03	IE-CE	Clare	u	EI03	Clare	EI03
Cork	u	EI04	IE-CO	Cork	u	EI04	Cork	EI04
Cork	i	EI32	IE-CR	Cork	i	EI32	Cork	EI04
Donegal	u	EI06	IE-DL	Donegal	u	EI06	Donegal	EI06
Dublin	i	EI33	IE-DU	Dublin	i	EI33	Dublin	EI07
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown	u	EI34	IE-DR	Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown	u	EI34	Dublin	EI07
Fingal	u	EI35	IE-FI	Fingal	u	EI35	Dublin	EI07
Galway	u	EI10	IE-G	Galway	u	EI10	Galway	EI10
Galway	i	EI36	IE-GA	Galway	i	EI36	Galway	EI10
Kerry	u	EI11	IE-KY	Kerry	u	EI11	Kerry	EI11
Kildare	u	EI12	IE-KE	Kildare	u	EI12	Kildare	EI12
Kilkenny	u	EI13	IE-KK	Kilkenny	u	EI13	Kilkenny	EI13
Laois	u	EI15	IE-LS	Laois	u	EI15	Laois	EI15
Leitrim	u	EI14	IE-LM	Leitrim	u	EI14	Leitrim	EI14
Limerick	c	EI42	IE-LC	Limerick	u	EI16	Limerick	EI16
				Limerick	i	EI37	Limerick	EI16
Longford	u	EI18	IE-LD	Longford	u	EI18	Longford	EI18
Louth	u	EI19	IE-LH	Louth	u	EI19	Louth	EI19
Mayo	u	EI20	IE-MO	Mayo	u	EI20	Mayo	EI20
Meath	u	EI21	IE-MH	Meath	u	EI21	Meath	EI21
Monaghan	u	EI22	IE-MN	Monaghan	u	EI22	Monaghan	EI22
Offaly	u	EI23	IE-OY	Offaly	u	EI23	Offaly	EI23
Roscommon	u	EI24	IE-RN	Roscommon	u	EI24	Roscommon	EI24
Sligo	u	EI25	IE-SO	Sligo	u	EI25	Sligo	EI25
South Dublin	u	EI39	IE-SD	South Dublin	u	EI39	Dublin	EI07
Tipperary	u	EI43	IE-TA	North Tipperary	u	EI38	Tipperary	EI26
				South Tipperary	u	EI40	Tipperary	EI26
Waterford	c	EI44	IE-WF	Waterford	u	EI27	Waterford	EI27
				Waterford	i	EI41	Waterford	EI27
Westmeath	u	EI29	IE-WH	Westmeath	u	EI29	Westmeath	EI29
Wexford	u	EI30	IE-WX	Wexford	u	EI30	Wexford	EI30
Wicklow	u	EI31	IE-WW	Wicklow	u	EI31	Wicklow	EI31
Post-2014: Divisions under the LGRA 2014. Pre-2014: Admin. counties prior to the LGRA 2014. Typ: u = county, i = city, c = city and county. GEC: Codes from GEC. GENC: Codes from GENC. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4.

 

The provinces date back to about the beginning of the Christian era, when there were five of them (with Meath). They now have no administrative function. The separation of Northern Ireland divided Ulster into two parts: the larger (six counties at the time of the split) is all of Northern Ireland, and the smaller (three counties) is now two disjoint parts of the Irish Republic.

ISO	Province	Gaelic	Population	Area(km.²)
C	Connaught	Connacht	542,547	17,122
L	Leinster	Laighean	2,504,814	19,634
M	Munster	An Mhumhain	1,246,088	24,128
U	Ulster	Ulaidh	294,803	8,013
ISO: Province codes from ISO 3166-2. Gaelic: Name of province in Gaelic Population: 2011-04-10 census.

 

Eight regional authorities were established in 1994. Their functions were largely confined to studying and recommending. They were equivalent to level-3 NUTS areas (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, a Eurostat classification). The first four characters of their NUTS codes determined which level-2 NUTS area they belonged to: IE01 for Border, Midlands and Western; IE02 for Southern and Eastern.

Region	NUTS	Counties
Border	IE011	Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Louth, Monaghan, Sligo
Dublin	IE021	Dublin
Mid-East	IE022	Kildare, Meath, Wicklow
Midland	IE012	Laois, Longford, Offaly, Westmeath
Mid-West	IE023	Clare, Limerick, North Tipperary
South-East	IE024	Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford
South-West	IE025	Cork, Kerry
West	IE013	Galway, Mayo, Roscommon

 

On 1999-07-21 the level-2 NUTS areas became regions, each with a regional assembly. The eight regional authorities were abolished on 2014-06-01. Yet another change was made on 2015-01-01, replacing the two regions with three. The following table shows the composition of these three regions, each of which has its own assembly. Eastern & Midland region was formed by taking part of Border, Midlands and Western and part of Southern and Eastern, which seems logical. Comparing the new regions with the historic provinces, we find that Northern & Western is equivalent to Connaught and the portion of Ulster that remains in the Irish Republic. Southern is equivalent to Connacht plus three counties of Leinster. Eastern & Midland is the rest of Leinster.

Region	Counties	Capital
Eastern & Midland	Dublin, Kildare, Laois, Longford, Louth, Meath, Offaly, Westmeath, Wicklow	Ballymun, Dublin
Northern & Western	Cavan, Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Monaghan, Roscommon, Sligo	Ballaghaderreen, Co. Roscommon
Southern	Carlow, Clare, Cork, Kerry, Kilkenny, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford	Waterford

Territorial extent: 

All of the counties lie primarily on the main island, Ireland. Other islands occupied are listed for each county, roughly in order of decreasing size.

1. Clare: Mutton, and islands in the Shannon Estuary, especially at the mouth of River Fergus
2. Cork: Bear (Bere), Dursey, Great (in Cork Harbor), Clear, Sherkin, Whiddy, Long
3. Donegal: Aran, Tory, Cruit, Inishbofin, Inishtrahull, Gola
4. Dublin: Lambay, Dalkey, Irelands Eye, Shenicks
5. Galway: the Aran Islands, of which the largest are Inishmore, Inishmaan, and Inisheer; Gorumna, Inishbofin, Lettermore, Inishshark, Lettermullan, Mweenish, Tawin, Omey, High, Croaghnakeela
6. Kerry: Valentia (Valencia), the Blasket Islands (largest is Great Blasket), Carrig, Scariff, Beginish
7. Mayo: Achill, Clare, Inishturk, Inishkea North and South, Caher
8. Sligo: Inishmurray
9. Wexford: Saltee Islands, Tuskar Rock

The UN LOCODE page  for Ireland lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names: 

1. Carlow: Irish ceatharlach: quadruple lake
2. Cavan: Irish an cabhán: hollow
3. Clare: Irish an clár: plain
4. Connaught: from ethnic name Connachta
5. Cork: from Irish corcach: swamp
6. Donegal: Irish Dun na nGall: fort of foreigners (probably Danes)
7. Dublin: Irish dubh: black, linn: pool, referring to the Liffey estuary
8. Galway: Irish gailimh: stony river
9. Kerry: Irish ciarraí: people of Ciar
10. Kildare: Irish cill: convent, dara: oak
11. Kilkenny: Irish for church of Cainneach
12. Laois: from ethnic name, tribe of Laeight
13. Leinster: from ethnic name Laigin, Irish tir: territory
14. Leitrim: Irish liatroim: gray ridge
15. Limerick: Irish luimneach: barren land
16. Longford: fortified place
17. Louth: after River Lud
18. Mayo: Irish maigh eo: plain of the yews
19. Meath: Irish an mhí: the middle
20. Monaghan: Irish muineachán: place of the shrubs
21. Offaly: Irish uíbh Fhailí: Failghe's people
22. Roscommon: Irish ros Comáin: grove of Comán
23. Sligo: after River Shelly
24. Tipperary: Irish tipper: spring or well, and Ara, the name of a river
25. Ulster: from ethnic name Ulaidh, Irish tir: territory
26. Waterford: inlet of water
27. Westmeath: Irish an iarmhí: middle west

Change history: 

1. 1898: Under the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, Tipperary county split into Tipperary North Riding and Tipperary South Riding administrative counties. Cork, Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford county boroughs split from the administrative counties of the same names.
2. 1920: Names of Kings and Queens counties changed to Offaly and Laois, respectively.
3. 1985: Galway county borough split from Galway administrative county.
4. 1993-11-01: Under the Maastricht Treaty, the European Union replaced the European Communities, of which Ireland was a member.
5. 1994-01-01: Under the (Regional Authorities) (Establishment) Order, eight regions were established, as listed under "Further Subdivisions". At the same time, under the Local Government (Dublin) Act, 1993, Dublin administrative county split into Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown (capital Dún Laoghaire), Fingal (Swords), and South Dublin (Tallaght) administrative counties.
6. 2001: Under the Local Government Act, 2001 (S.I. 591 of 2001), status of county boroughs changed to cities; status of municipal boroughs changed to boroughs; names of Tipperary North Riding and Tipperary South Riding changed to North Tipperary and South Tipperary, respectively.
7. 2014-06-01: Under the Local Government Reform Act 2014, Limerick and Waterford cities merged with their administrative counties, and the administrative counties of North and South Tipperary merged.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Donegal: Tyrconnel (obsolete)
2. Dublin: Dublín (Spanish); Dublino (Italian); Dyflinni (Icelandic); Дублин (Russian)
3. Laois: Laoighis, Leix (variant); Queens (obsolete)
4. Offaly: Kings (obsolete)

Population history:

County	1901	1936	1946-05-12	1956-04-08	1966-04-17	1971-04-18	1981-04-05	1991-04-21	2002-04-28	2011-04-10
Carlow	37,723	34,452	34,081	33,888	34,000	34,237	39,820	40,946	46,014	54,612
Cavan	97,368	76,670	70,355	61,740	54,000	52,618	53,855	52,756	56,546	73,183
Clare	112,129	89,879	85,064	77,176	74,000	75,008	87,567	90,826	103,277	117,196
Cork	404,813	355,957	343,668	336,663	340,000	352,892	402,465	409,814	447,829	519,032
Donegal	173,625	142,310	136,317	122,059	109,000	108,344	125,112	127,994	137,575	161,137
Dublin	447,266	586,925	636,193	705,781	795,000	852,219	1,003,164	1,024,429	1,122,821	1,273,069
Galway	192,146	168,198	165,201	155,553	148,000	149,223	172,018	180,304	209,077	250,653
Kerry	165,331	139,834	133,893	122,072	113,000	112,772	122,770	121,719	132,527	145,502
Kildare	63,469	57,892	64,849	65,915	66,000	71,977	104,122	122,516	163,944	210,312
Kilkenny	78,821	68,614	66,712	64,089	60,000	61,473	70,806	73,613	80,339	95,419
Laois	57,226	50,109	49,697	47,087	45,000	45,259	51,171	52,325	58,774	80,559
Leitrim	69,201	50,908	44,591	37,056	31,000	28,360	27,609	25,297	25,799	31,798
Limerick	146,018	141,153	142,559	137,881	137,000	140,459	161,661	161,856	175,304	191,809
Longford	46,581	37,847	36,218	32,969	29,000	28,250	31,140	30,293	31,068	39,000
Louth	65,741	64,339	66,194	69,194	70,000	74,951	88,514	90,707	101,821	122,897
Mayo	202,627	161,349	148,120	133,052	116,000	109,525	114,766	110,696	117,446	130,638
Meath	67,463	61,405	66,232	66,762	67,000	71,729	95,419	105,540	134,005	184,135
Monaghan	74,505	61,289	57,215	52,064	46,000	46,242	51,192	51,262	52,593	60,483
Offaly	60,129	51,308	53,686	51,970	52,000	51,829	58,312	58,448	63,663	76,687
Roscommon	101,639	77,566	72,510	63,710	56,000	53,519	54,543	51,876	53,774	64,065
Sligo	84,022	67,447	62,375	56,850	51,000	50,275	55,474	54,736	58,200	65,393
Tipperary	159,754	137,835	136,014	129,415	123,000	124,565	135,261	132,620	140,131	158,754
Waterford	87,030	77,614	76,108	74,031	73,000	77,315	88,591	91,608	101,546	113,795
Westmeath	61,527	54,706	54,949	54,122	53,000	53,570	61,523	61,882	71,858	86,164
Wexford	103,860	94,245	91,855	87,259	83,000	85,351	99,081	102,045	116,596	145,320
Wicklow	60,679	58,569	60,451	59,906	60,000	66,295	87,449	97,293	114,676	136,640
Totals	3,221,823	2,968,420	2,955,107	2,898,264	2,885,000	2,978,248	3,443,405	3,525,719	3,917,203	4,588,252

Sources: 

1. [1] Population Classified by Area . Central Statistics Office, Dublin, 2012-04 (retrieved 2012-08-28).
2. [2] "Population and Vital Statistics." Central Statistics Office Ireland (dead link, retrieved 2003-12-06 from http://www.cso.ie/principalstats/cenpop.html).
3. [3] Europa World Year Book 2001. Europa Publications, London, 2001.
4. [4] Census 86, Vol. 1. Stationery Office, Dublin.
5. [5] Statistisches Jahrbuch 1992 für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Statistisches Bundesamt, Wiesbaden, 1992.
6. [6] Fifth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. Vol. II. New York: United Nations, 1991.
7. [7] Regional Assemblies . The Irish Regions Office (retrieved 2015-06-24).
8. [8] 2016 Preliminary Census Results Central Statistics Office (retrieved 2017-03-31).