There are officially eleven cities in Ireland between the two jurisdictions in Ireland, five of these in Northern Ireland and six of them in the Republic of Ireland. The majority of these cities were established as cities before the partition of Ireland in 1921 and only in Northern Ireland have new cities been created since this partition.

Republic of Ireland

Cities in the Republic of Ireland are legally defined^[1] by the Local Government Act (2001), with one historic city (Kilkenny, legally a town) permitted^[2] continued ceremonial usage. There is no modern equivalent of the system in the United Kingdom of award by the reigning monarch of letters patent to upgrade a place to a city. Dublin is the only city mentioned in the Constitution of Ireland; it is mentioned for the purposes of residence of the President of Ireland and the assembly of the Houses of the Oireachtas - both of which must be "in or near the City of Dublin"^[3]

Five cities trace their city status to historic royal charters, Cork,^[4] Dublin,^[5] Kilkenny,^[6] Limerick^[7] and Waterford^[8] all but Kilkenny have a city council and city limits that separate them from their surrounding county or counties. In addition, Galway was granted a charter in 1484 that, while not using the word 'city', did grant it authority to elect a mayor.^[9]

⁰The right to the title of Lord Mayor was granted to the City of Dublin in 1665 by Charles II and at the same time the style The Right Honourable was also permitted, which continued until a change in the law in 2001. The City of Cork was given the right to the title of Lord Mayor in 1900 by Victoria but the Lord Mayor has never been permitted the use of the style of The Right Honourable.

¹ These dates are used as approximations of the date that the city came to be viewed as a city. Before 1171, and the advent of English rule in Ireland, cities were not declared such officially, in the form of a charter or otherwise (the equivalent cities in England being those said to have been cities 'since time immemorial'). Foundation dates for these pre-Norman cities date from the earliest, continuous Viking occupation [1]. Otherwise the charter date is given.

²^,4 Data from census 2002. (The census 2006 final report has not yet been released.)

³ City/Borough Council plus (contiguous) suburb population figures, available from the relevant CSO [2] census reports.

⁵ Exact date not known.

^5a http://www.corkcity.ie/citycouncil/charters.shtml Cork City Council article on its charters

⁶ City status was abolished by the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840 and reinstated in Irish Law by Local Government (Reorganisation) Act, 1985

7 "In November 1395, Richard II granted the town a new a perpetual murage charter and the town's first Royal Charter, raising (its) status to that of Royal Borough"

⁸ Galway traces its city status to its 1484 Borough Charter of Richard III, in which it was awarded a mayor. However, the text refers to it being a town rather than a city.

Former city: Cashel

Cashel, County Tipperary, was created a city by charter of Charles II in 1667. The city status was lost when the city corporation was abolished by the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840.^[10]

Northern Ireland

Main article: List of cities in the United Kingdom

⁰The right to use the title of Lord Mayor was granted to the City of Belfast in 1892. In recognition of Belfast being the capital of the then recently created Northern Ireland, the style of The Right Honourable was permitted in 1923.

²^,4 Data from census 2001.

³ City/Borough Council plus (contiguous) suburb population figures, available from the relevant ONS [3] census reports.

⁵ Greater Belfast, includes Lisburn

⁶ Legal name is Londonderry, as was the walled city (see Plantation of Ulster).

⁷ Derry Urban Area

⁸ Granted a charter for the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

Former city: Downpatrick (City of Down)

What is now Downpatrick, County Down was recognised as the "City of Down, in Ulster" in letters of protection issued by Henry IV in 1403. The corporation existed by prescription but seems to have ceased to exist by the seventeenth century, and city status was not maintained.^[12]

See also

• List of Ireland-related topics
  • List of towns in Northern Ireland
  • List of towns in the Republic of Ireland
• List of cities in the United Kingdom

Footnotes

1. ^ Schedule 5 of the 2001 Act
2. ^ Article 10 Para 6 of the Local Government Act (2001)
3. ^ Constitution of Ireland, Articles 12.11.1 and 15.1.3 respectively
4. ^ Cork City Council - Charters
5. ^ Dublin City Council - Guide to Pre 1840 Collections I
6. ^ History Of Kilkenny Borough Council
7. ^ The Encyclopedia of Ireland, Page 630
8. ^ Lewis's Topographical Dictionary (Part 3) - Waterford City
9. ^ Charter of Richard III
10. ^ Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, Volume I, 1837 (Library Ireland)
11. ^ Derry City Council - City commemorates the 400th Anniversary of the City’s first charter
12. ^ Samuel Lewis (ed.), Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, Vol.1, 1837

External links

• Map of Ireland showing administrative divisions