Redrawing county boundaries

The J Stands for Jay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121027730#Comment_121027730

My favourite ridiculous bit is having Coleraine town not in Coleraine county.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121029798#Comment_121029798

Again. Can you at least give some Political or Economic reasons why the county lines should be redrawn, beyond some notional sense of historical tradition? River boundaries might make neater maps but it's one thing to include a whole town within a county, without wholesale rejig of entire regions.

dublincc2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121030191#Comment_121030191

It should be relocated west of the Bann as it was before the plantations of the 17th century. Therefore it being mostly in the county.

The J Stands for Jay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121030231#Comment_121030231

So, do you want the river rerouted, or the buildings and roads moved across to the west of the river. Bearing in mind most of the town, including the centre, main retail district, town hall, university and schools are east of the river.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121030231#Comment_121030231

So, all back to an arbitrary moment in time?

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121030231#Comment_121030231

Why on earth would any urban planners revert to 17th century boundaries?

Respectfully, but is this serious and did your research actually end at 1900? You seem to be willfully ignoring the make up of Ireland's urban centres as they exist now.

Strumms

An awful lot of effort, energy, inconvenience and money…. For the benefit of nobody….

magicbastarder

How many towns would you find in Ireland where the majority of the population *want* to transfer to another county?

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121030515#Comment_121030515

And that's the problem. South Kilkenny people don't want to be Waterford and south Clare people don't want to be Limerick but in terms of administration it makes perfect sense.

I honestly wouldn't give a shte if you called the Limerick city urban area the "Shannon region" or some other crap but it makes more sense than some NIMBY plonker rural councillor from Ballylander or Rathkeale getting to have an opinion on city matters when a councillor from Cratloe can't.

You might not have to "transfer" at all but rather make new counties like Cumbria did.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121030231#Comment_121030231

So you can't quote any sort of historical reference for your proposal. It's just made up.

dublincc2

No. It’s based on historical precedence and the reality on the ground.

Psychedelic Hedgehog

It'll be a fcuking cold day in hell before I accept forced reunification with Meath.

Brussels Sprout

I'm going to take a wild guess that the OP doesn't happen to be from any of the counties that they are proposing to eliminate with a stroke of their pen.

GSBellew

Right, so the OP wants rivers to be the county boundaries, but not always, just in some cases, others are still pretty much random, wants to join some counties together whilst leaving others as they were.

Being from Louth I'm quite happy that we have been left alone in this masterplan for the redivision of counties other than shipping us to Ulster.

But lets be realistic, if you were re dividing the country why would the smallest county in the country be left as with its own county council whilst merging larger counties into one with one council?

purplepanda

We have the typical double the size of Dublin Lebensraum factor in full effect. From a Dublin poster what a surprise.

I don't know about many of the supposed historical claims. However I know that Carlow once contained large parts of present County Wicklow, which was not founded until 1601, the last county in Ireland. Previously most of Carlow was controlled by the Wexford Kinsella clan in medieval times.

There certainly is no historical record of Dublin ruling over these regions. In contrast the Kinsellas actually ruled over Dublin for a period during the 11th century having captured the town from the previous Viking rulers.

Dublin is more than big enough, adding a rural county area with many mountainous regions won't alleviate any of Dublins current issues.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121031830#Comment_121031830

Prove it. Show some detail about these "reality on the ground" that the merges will bring economic benefit to the communities and areas proposed for changing. Historical precedence means nothing.

Montage of Feck

For me the obvious changes would be west galway joining with mayo and in Munster north Kerry joining Limerick and south Kerry and west cork. There are stark cultural and historical splits in the different regions of galway and Kerry. There's also a strong football/hurling divide in Kerry and galway.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121032166#Comment_121032166

Best response so far 👍🤣

I'm honestly surprised this thread is still going, the mods must be in a patient mood today

road_high

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121030595#Comment_121030595

They shouldn’t change the county boundaries. But the local authorities should be re arranged dropping the inefficient and frankly stupid county arrangement. At least two or three county units or rename the local authority areas like in the North

CrabRevolution

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121029798#Comment_121029798

I get the impression this is a windup but are you not contradicting yourself there? In your first paragraph you say any land south of the Suir is in Waterford (which is false), but then in the second say that towns straddling rivers mean county borders are moved across the river (which is true).

Risteard81

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058310866/redrawing-county-boundaries

No. Ireland's 32-Counties are eternal.

dublincc2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121032336#Comment_121032336

Wicklow was always split between Dublin and Carlow:

Montage of Feck

The history of pre plantation Ireland was quite fascinating, their was no organised Irish nation but a patchwork of Norman lordships and Gaelic clan territories. All with very different laws, customs and even languages.

Then the English came and created mostly arbitrary counties with no regard to the people who inhabited the areas.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121034086#Comment_121034086

Questionable use of the word "always".

pixelburp

Welp. I've asked multiple times for some kind of rational economic justification to completely redraw Ireland's county and urban structures - beyond some Pie in the Sky twinkly notions of Ireland before Dem Across the Water came. None given, so not a serious thread. Best let it die on the vine so; adiós.

dublincc2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121032235#Comment_121032235

The counties were created in the first place with a stroke of a pen, so I don’t see what your point is. My argument is that they should be altered to reflect the current realities on the ground as well as to restore the old Gaelic divisions.

blue note

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121030595#Comment_121030595

This is an interesting statement. There was a boarder review some years back that looked at the Waterford / Kilkenny boarder. You're certainly right that South Kilkenny people don't want to be in Waterford, but that doesn't mean that the majority of people in the region it was recommended be taken into Waterford didn't want to be in Waterford. Since there are more Waterford than Kilkenny people in that region at this stage. I remember RTE doing a report in the local primary school before the 2008 AI final and practically the whole class was supporting Waterford. The reality is that Waterford has spread into South Kilkenny. From an administrative point of view, it's bonkers that the council responsible for this area is the one focused on KK city. It's also bonkers that Waterford as a county is split between City folk and Westies and the council offices are not in the city, but that's another story.

Of course administrative boundaries should be redrawn. But I don't really see any point in discussing it because I can't imagine politicians doing anything that could harm their election prospects.

I also find it particularly annoying when people bring GAA into it. Why on earth would the GAA have to follow the government when redrawing county boundaries?

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121034345#Comment_121034345

On the last one they wouldn't but people who don't understand things get all fire dup about it.

English cricket still uses the historic counties. Middlesex for instance have a team and in rugby still have a league despite the county no longer existing as an administrative area.

dublincc2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121034175#Comment_121034175

Larger subdivisions means a larger local economy.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121034294#Comment_121034294

But you're not restoring to old gaelic divisions. You're just trying to wipe out the partial impact of the plantations. Gaelic divisions didn't have counties. Picking your own arbitrary date is nonsense.