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Information about Munster

For other places with the same or similar names, and other uses of the word, see Munster (disambiguation).
Munster
Cúige Mumhan
Location
center
Map highlighting Munster
Statistics
Area:24,607.52
Population (2006)1,172,170
Munster (Irish: An Mhumhain, IPA: [ənˈvuːnʲ], Cúige Mumhan or Mumha) is the southernmost of the four provinces of Ireland. It comprises the counties of: The largest city in Munster is Cork.

The name is derived from the Celtic goddess, Muma. The province was once divided into six regions: Tuadh Mhuman (North Munster), Deas Mhuman (South Munster), Urh Mumhan (East Munster), Iar mumhan (West Munster), Ernaibh Muman (the Ernai tribe's portion of Munster), and Deisi Muman (the Deisi tribe's portion of Munster). Ultimately, these were all subsumed into the kingdoms of Thomond (North Munster), Desmond (South Munster), and Ormond (East Munster), all of which were eventually subsumed by surrender and regrant as Earldoms in the Peerage of Ireland. The names exist only indirectly today, particularly in the case of Thomond. The three crowns represent these three kingdoms. This flag can easily be confused with the flag of Dublin which has three castles in a similar pattern on a blue background; it also resembles the lesser coat-of-arms of Sweden, the Three Crowns.

In 1841 before the Great Famine, there were just under 3 million people living in the province of Munster, but the population had dropped devastatingly low due to mass emigration in the 1840s and continued emigration up until the 1980s.

For 30 days during the Irish Civil War, the province of Munster broke away from the Irish Free State and established the Munster Republic in opposition to the acceptance of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The Munster Republic was short lived and subsequently crushed by heavily-armed Irish Free State forces.

Munster is also an Irish Rugby Football Union representative side which competes in the Celtic League and for the Heineken Cup, winning in 2006.

Cities

Cork is the largest city conurbation, which has a population of 190,384 (2006) and 380,000 within the Greater Cork Area. (See Cork Co. Council population report below)

Other important cities are Limerick 90,757 (2006) which also has over 100,000 people in the greater Limerick area and Waterford 49,213 (2006).

Large towns

In order of size of population
(* towns in Metropolitan Cork area)
  • (All figures - 2002 Census)

Economy

The province of Munster contributes 40 billion euro (US$52.57bn) to Irish GDP (25% of total Irish GDP) (2004) (greater than the GDP of Northern Ireland) (See "GDP stats" below). Munster is the home to many modern capital intensive, highly productive private sector enterprises.

Historically, much of the province of Munster has focussed heavily on food processing. Munster is Ireland's main dairying region, and the chief source of Ireland's butter and cheese exports. Munster has a favourable climate, a tradition of expertise in dairy processing going back to the 1600s, and a strong history of successful involvement in co-operative movement. In the mid 1980s the Dairy sector was the largest single sector of the Irish economy, and routinely accounted for 18-23% of national GDP, generating much needed foreign currency at a time of continual trade deficit in the general economy. There is also a small scale speciality food sector in Munster, which is of greater relative importance than in the other regions of Ireland. The produce from this sector is available in numerous farmer's markets in Ireland (of which Munster has the highest concentration).

The Cork harbour area was the centre of Ireland's heavy industry manufacturing sector. Cork had a steel mill, a shipyard, a car assembly plant, a tyre plant, a deep harbour, and a thriving textile sector in the mid twentieth century. (Cork people are proud point out that this was greater than any other Irish city including Belfast, which did not figure in the automotive industry). However heavy taxes, excessive regulation, competition from larger centres of economic activity, and the sudden removal of protective tarifs upon membership of the European Economic Community caused a decline in the 1970s. Cork was Ireland's rust belt city in the 1980s, as heavy industry moved out, and newer sectors tried to get established in as unemployment peaked.

Waterford was the location of the high end Waterford Crystal plant, which at time paid the highest manufacturing wages in Ireland. However a recession in the 1980s resulted in redundancies, that paradoxically increased competition as workers went to found their own workshops. Since then Waterford Crystal has struggled to regain its full former glory.

Ireland's only oil refinery and oil storage facility is still located at Whiddy Island.

Munster was the home of 'The Munster and Leinster Bank', which is parent of Ireland's richest and largest bank Allied Irish Bank. Cork, in Munster, is also home of the two largest Irish owned retailing organizations, Dunnes Stores, and the Musgrave Group. Cork is also home to two of the three Irish Stout brands; Murphy's Irish stout, and Beamish, as well as the 'Paddy' brand of Irish whiskey.

Shannon airport, a rich music tradition, the best food from land and sea, and landscapes of international renown, have all been influential in the development of the tourist sector in Munster.

Munster has developed into the centre of Ireland's Pharmaceutical industry. The province plays an ever greater role in the bio-pharmaceutical industry and is successful in fighting off stiff competition from Switzerland and Singapore for inward investments in the bio-pharmaceutical area in companies such as Amgen and Pfizer. Munster is one of Ireland's most important I.T. hubs with such multinationals as Apple, Intel, Amazon and Dell locating in the province. Fexco Financial Services in Killorgan one of many organizations to locate in the South-West, to avail of a long tradition of astute financial management.

The following are some of the more important employers in the region: AOL, Bausch & Lomb, Dairygold, Dell, Amazon, Motorola, Amgen, Pfizer, Analog Devices, Fexco Financial Services, Vistakon, Waterford Crystal, Apple Computer, Intel, Novartis, O2, Lufthansa Technik, Kerry Group, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Siemens, Sony. The largest employment hub in Munster is Metropolitan Cork, with many large multinational firms located in the area. The second most important is the Shannon Free Zone with over 120 international firms based there employing over 7,500 people.

International airports

Irish language

The Irish language is spoken as a first language in Gaeltachtaí (Irish speaking areas);
  • in West Kerry (Corca Dhuibhne)
  • in South Kerry (Uíbh Ráthach). Here, the language died out in the 1950s.
  • in West Cork (Múscraí)
  • in south-west Cork (Oileán Cléire)
  • in south-west Waterford (Gaeltacht na Rinne or Gaeltacht na nDeise)
The number of Gaelscoileanna (Irish language schools) has increased sharply in the last ten years. Children learn Irish and speak Irish in the Gaelscoileanna.

Munster media

Television

  • RTÉ Cork - Cork based television broadcasting studios for RTÉ
  • South Coast TV - Cork based television company

Newspapers

  • The Irish Examiner - Cork based National Newspaper
  • The Avondhu - covers North East Cork, West Waterford, South Limerick and South Tipperary.
  • The Munster Express - covers the South East.
  • Nationalist & Munster Advertiser
The Limerick Leader (covers the Mid West)

Clare

  • Clare Champion
  • Clare People
  • Clare Courier

Cork

Kerry

  • The Kerryman
  • The Kingdom
  • The Kerry's Eye

Limerick

Tipperary

  • The Guardian, Nenagh
  • The Tipperary Star
  • The Nationalist, Clonmel

Waterford

  • The Waterford News and Star
  • The Munster Express, Dungarvan

Radio

  • Red FM - Cork Youth-driven service.
  • Clare FM - County Clare
  • Tipp FM - County Tipprary
  • Radio Kerry - County Kerry
  • WLR FM - Waterford City and County
  • 96FM and 103FM County Sound (dual franchise) - General service for Cork
  • Live 95FM - Limerick City and County
  • West Limerick 102 - Limerick city and County
  • Spin SW
  • Beat 102-103 - Youth-driven service. Counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford and South Tipperary.
  • RTÉ Ráidió na Gaeltachta "Camchuairt" - Tralee, County Kerry

Munster stadia

In order of capacity

External links

See also

 •  • [ e]
Counties of Ireland
Connacht
Munster
Leinster
Ulster
Italics denote non-administrative counties   (Parentheses) denote eponymous cities or non-traditional counties
Munster refers to many things, primarily place names.

Note that in German the letters u and ü are distinct and are pronounced differently. According to German typesetting conventions, if no diacritics are available the letter "ü" is denoted by "ue".
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Area is a physical quantity expressing the size of a part of a surface. The term Surface area is the summation of the areas of the exposed sides of an object.

Units

Units for measuring surface area include:
square metre = SI derived unit

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population is the collection of people or organisms of a particular species living in a given geographic area or mortality, and migration, though the field encompasses many dimensions of population change including the family (marriage and divorce), public health, work and the
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Irish}}} 
Writing system: Latin (Irish variant) 
Official status
Official language of: Republic of Ireland
Northern Ireland
European Union
Regulated by: Foras na Gaeilge
Language codes
ISO 639-1: ga
ISO 639-2: gle
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International Phonetic Alphabet

Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The International
Phonetic Alphabet
History
Nonstandard symbols
Extended IPA
Naming conventions
IPA for English The
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When under Gaelic rule, Ireland was divided into provinces to replace the earlier system of the túatha.

The four provinces are:

Province Population Area (km²) Number of Counties? Capital
 Leinster 2,292,939 19,774 12 Dublin
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County Clare (Contae an Chláir in Irish) is in the Irish province of Munster. It is located on the west coast of Ireland, northwest of the River Shannon and bordering Lough Derg. Area: 3,147 km² (1,215 square miles). Its capital is the town of Ennis.
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County Cork (Irish: Contae Chorcaí) is the most southwesterly and the largest of the modern counties of Ireland. Cork is nicknamed "The Rebel County", as a result of the support of the townsmen of Cork in 1491 for Perkin
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County Kerry (Irish: Contae Chiarraí) is a county in the south west of Ireland, in the Munster province of the Republic of Ireland, informally referred to as The Kingdom.
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County Limerick (Contae Luimnigh in Irish) is a county in the province of Munster, located in the mid-west of Ireland with County Clare to the north, County Cork to the south, County Kerry to the west and County Tipperary to the east.
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County Tipperary (Irish: Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in the Republic of Ireland situated in the province of Munster. Tipperary was one of the first Irish counties to be established in the 13th century.
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County Waterford (Irish: Contae Phort Láirge) is a county in the province of Munster on the south coast of Ireland. Administratively, the city of Waterford is a county-level authority.
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Cork (Irish: Corcaigh) is the second city of the Republic of Ireland and Ireland's third most populous city after Dublin and Belfast.
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Thomond (Irish: Tuadh Mumhan, meaning North Munster) The region of Ireland associated with the name Thomond is County Limerick, north County Tipperary and east County Clare, effectively most of north Munster.
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Sources:

County Desmond (Irish: Deas Mumhain) was a historic kingdom, earldom and county of Ireland located on the country's south-western coast. It was partitioned between County Cork and County Kerry in 1606.
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The Peerage of Ireland is the term used for those peers created by British monarchs in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland. This practice ended with the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922.
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Thomond (Irish: Tuadh Mumhan, meaning North Munster) The region of Ireland associated with the name Thomond is County Limerick, north County Tipperary and east County Clare, effectively most of north Munster.
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crown is the traditional symbolic form of headgear worn by a monarch or by a deity, for whom the crown traditionally statue power, legitimacy, immortality, righteousness, victory, triumph, resurrection, honour and glory of life after death.
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Dublin (IPA: /ˈdʌblɨn, ˈdʊblɨn/, or /ˈdʊbəlɪn/) (Irish: Baile Átha Cliath,
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A castle is a defensive structure seen as one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages. The term has a history of scholarly debate surrounding its exact meaning, but it is usually regarded as being distinct from the general terms fort or fortress in that it describes a building
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coat of arms or armorial bearings (often just arms for short), in European tradition, is a design belonging to a particular person (or group of people) and used by them in a wide variety of ways.
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Motto
(Royal) "För Sverige - I tiden" 1
"For Sweden – With the Times" ²
Anthem
Du gamla, Du fria
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Three Crowns (Swedish: Tre Kronor) is a national emblem of Sweden, present in the Coat of Arms of the Realm of Sweden, and composed by three yellow or gilded coronets ordered two above and one below, placed on a blue background.
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Irish Civil War (Irish: Cogadh Cathartha na hÉireann) was a conflict between supporters and opponents of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 6, 1921, which established the Irish Free State, precursor of today's Republic of Ireland.
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The Munster Republic was a term used by Irish republicans to refer to the territory they held in the province of Munster at the start of the Irish Civil War, with its capital city being Cork.
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Irish Free State (Irish: Saorstát Éireann) (1922–1937) was the state comprising the twenty-six of Ireland's thirty-two counties that were separated from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Anglo-Irish Treaty
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Munster Rugby

Full name Irish Rugby Football Union Munster Branch
Nickname(s) The Red Army
Founded 1879

Location Munster, Republic of Ireland
Ground Thomond Park
Musgrave Park
Capacity 12,500
8,000
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Irish Rugby Football Union
Cumann Rugbaí na hÉireann

Founded 1879
IRB affiliation 1886
FIRA-AER affiliation 1999
President Peter Boyle (2006-)
Men's coach Eddie O'Sullivan (2001-)
Women's coach
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Sport Rugby union
Founded 2001
No. of teams 10
Country(ies)  Ireland
 Scotland
 Wales

Most recent champion(s) Ospreys

The Celtic League (Irish: An Sraith Ceilteach, Welsh:
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Sport Rugby union
Founded 1995
No. of teams 24
Country(ies)  England
 France
 Ireland
 Italy
 Scotland
 Wales

Most recent champion(s) London Wasps The Heineken Cup
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