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KER
divisions it appertains to those of Urglin, Clonmulsh, and
Carlow.
KERRY (R. C. Bishoprick of).—See ARDFERT.
KERRY, a maritime county of the province of
MUNSTER, hounded on the east by the counties of Lim-
erick and Cork, on the north by the estuary of the
Shannon (which separates it from Clare), on the west
by the Atlantic, and on the south by the same ocean
and the county of Cork, It extends from 51° 40’ to
52° 37’ (North Lat.), and from 9° 8’ to 10° 27’
(West Lon.); and comprises an area, according to the
Ordnance survey, of 1,148,720 acres, of which 581,189
acres are cultivated land, 552,862 are unprofitable bog
and mountain, and 14,669 are under water. The
population, in 1821, amounted to 216,185; and in 1831,
to 263,126.
The inhabitants of this tract, according to Ptolemy’s
chart, were in his time designated Velabri or Fellibori;
“Hibernice,” says Dr. O’Connor, “SioL Ebir, obviously
meaning Illiberi Iberia.” They are supposed to have
been descended from the Iberi of Spain, to which their
country lies opposite; but Camden derives their name
from the British Aber, signifying an estuary, thus
making it descriptive of the nature of the country.
The Lucanij, or “people of the maritime country,” were
placed by Richard of Cirencester in this county, near
Dingle bay. Ptolemy calls them Luceni, and they
appear to be the Lugadii of Irish writers, which in a
general sense comprehended all the inhabitants on the
southern coast, from the harbour of Waterford to the
mouth of the Shannon, though sometimes confined to
those of the county of Waterford. The present name of
the county is variously derived. Some trace it from
Ciar, the eldest son of Fergus, King of Ulster, from
whom it was called Carruidhe, or Cair Reeght, that is,
“the kingdom of Ciar.” According to Ledwich, it was
called Cerrigia, or “the rocky country,” from Cerrig, or
Carric, “a rock.” Ciaruidhe, or “the rocky district on
the water,” from ciar, or cer, “a rock,” and uidhe, or
ui dha, “a district on the water,” was the present
barony of Iraghticonnor, on the south bank of the
Shannon, and from which may be derived Cerrigia and
Kerry. The chiefs of this country were called Hy Cain
air Ciaruidhe, by contraction O’Connor Kerry, whose
descendants were in possession of their ancient patri-
mony in the beginning of the last century. This district
was sometimes denominated Ciaruidhe Luachra, or “the
rocky district on the great lake or water.” By some
ecclesiastical writers the whole is called the country of
St. Brandon, to whom the principal cathedral in the
county was dedicated, and from whom a very remark-
able mountain on the western coast takes its name.
Camden calls that part of the sea into which the Shannon
discharges itself Mare JBrendanicum. The great portion
of the county lying to the south of the river Mang
formed, with the whole county of Cork, the old native
sovereignty of Desmond, or South Munster, granted by
Hen. II. to Robert Fitz-Stephen and Milo de Cogan,but
of which these adventurers were able to make themselves
masters only of the districts near the city of Cork.
On the arrival of the English, the O’Connors were in
possession of the northern part; the middle parts were
in the possession of the Moriartys: the southern portion
was occupied by the O’Sullivans, from whom the district
now named Dunkerron barony was called O’Sullivan’s
39
KER
country; also by the O’Donoghoes, distinguished into
the septs of O’Donoghoe More and O’Donoghoe Ross
and by the O’Mahonies. The M c Carties, who had
been the most powerful sept in the South of Ireland
before the landing of the English, being subdued by the
invaders, their chief took refuge in the fastnesses of Kerry,
where he was afterwards compelled to have recourse to
the aid of Raymond le Gros to put down a rebellion of
his own son, and in recompense for this service he gave
him the northern district, then called Lixnaw. Raymond
here settled his son Maurice, who gave its present name
to this part of the county, which was henceforward called
Clan-Maurice, in like manner as the family bear to the
present day the name of Fitzmaurice. The ancestor of
the Earls of Desmond, John Fitz-Thomas, also, soon after
the arrival of Hen. II., acquired large possessions in
Kerry and the contiguous districts, including the coun-
try of Desmond, by marriage with the daughter of
Thomas Fitz-Anthony, another Anglo-Norman leader;
and these were augmented by Prince John, in 1199.
Henceforward, the family of Fitz-Gerald exercised a
predominant authority in this quarter of the kingdom.
The county was made shire ground, with its present
limits, by King John, in 1210. Desmond was included
with the Decies in the confirmatory grant made, in 1260,
by Prince Edward to Lord John Fitz-Thomas; but in
the following year this family received from the native
sept of the M c Carties a complete overthrow in Glane-
rought, in this county, from which they did not recover
for twelve years, when quarrels among the native chiefs
again admitted the rise of their power. Lord Thomas,
towards the close of the thirteenth century, sat in
parliament as Lord Offaly, and claimed, under the grant
of Edw. I., to be the king’s sheriff of Kerry. In these
early ages, therefore, the districts forming the present
county were subject to the power of three great families,
the Fitz-Geralds, lords of Desmond; the Fitz-Maurices,
lords of Kerry in the north; and the M c Carties, tanists
of the elevated central and southern regions. Edw. III.,
in 1329, granted to Maurice Fitz-Thomas the name and
honour of Earl of Desmond, and all royal liberties
within the county of Kerry; the church or cross lands
thereof, and the four usual pleas of burnings, rape,
forestal, and treasure trove alone excepted. In the
following year, the earl deemed this sufficient authority
for entirely excluding the king’s sheriffs and other ordi-
nary ministers of justice from the county. The extra-
ordinary power of this nobleman, however, brought
upon him for a time some jealous persecution by the
officers of the crown. In 1345, having presumed to
summon a parliament in opposition to that called by
the Lord Justice, Sir Ralph Ufford, the latter overran
and seized upon the whole of his possessions, which
were not restored to him until 1352. In 1388, Gerald,
Earl of Desmond, was formally appointed keeper of the
peace in the counties of Kerry and Limerick, with very
extensive powers and authority, and in conjunction with
Patrick Fox. In 1386, we find John Fitz-Gerald, Earl of
Desmond, made sheriff of the Crosses of Kerry; being
the lands of the church within its limits, in which the
king’s ordinary jurisdiction had course. James, Earl
of Desmond, about 1425, as lord of the liberties of
Kerry, entered into a deed with Patrick Fitz-Maurice
Fitz-John, Lord Kerry, “captain or head of his nation,”
whereby the latter was bound to answer to the earl