Note 475 — Chapter XVIII · ON THE CONSTITUTION OF IRELAND

These counties are Dublin, Kildare, Meath (including Westmeath), Louth, Carlow, Wexford, Kilkenny, Waterford, Cork, Tipperary, Kerry, and Limerick. In the reign of Edward I. we find sheriffs also of Connaught and Roscommon. Leland, i. 19. Thus, except the northern province and some of the central districts, all Ireland was shire-ground, and subject to the Crown in the thirteenth century, however it might fall away in the two next. Those who write confusedly about this subject, pretend that the authority of the king at no time extended beyond the pale; whereas that name was not known, I believe, till the fifteenth century. Under the great Earl of Pembroke, who died in 1219, the whole island was perhaps nearly as much reduced under obedience as in the reign of Elizabeth. Leland, 205.