| Munster Cúige Mumhan | ||
| Image:Flag of Munster.svg | ||
|---|---|---|
| Location | ||
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| Statistics | ||
| Area: | 24,607.52 | |
| Population (2006) | 1,172,170 | |
Munster (Irish: An Mhumhain, IPA: [ənˈvuːnʲ]) is the southernmost of the four provinces of Ireland. It comprises the counties of Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford.) 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), Desmond (south), and Ormond (east), 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.
In 1841 before the Great Famine, there was just under 3 million people living in the province of Munster, but the population had dropped devastatingly low due to mass emigration in the 1840's and continued emigration up until the 1980's.
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.
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Cork is the largest city conurbation, which has a population of 186,239 (2002) and 380,000 within the Greater Cork Area.(See Cork Co. Council population report below)
Other important cities are Limerick 86,998 (2002) which also has over 100,000 people in the greater Limerick area and Waterford 46,736 (2002).
(* towns in Metropolitan Cork area)
The province of Munster contributes in excess of 35 billion euro(US$44.5bn) to Irish GDP.(2002) (greater than the GDP of Northern Ireland) (See "GDP stats" below)
The following are some of the more important employers in the region: AOL, Bausch & Lomb, Dell, Amazon, Motorola, Amgen, Pfizer, Analog Devices, Vistakon, Waterford Crystal, Apple Computer, Novartis, O2, Kerry Group, Siemens, Sony. The largest employment hub in Munster is Metropolitan Cork, with many large multinational firms located in the area.
The province is continuing to play an ever greater role in the bio-pharmaceutical industry and fighting off stiff competition from Switzerland and Singapore for inward investments in the bio-pharmaceutical area such as Amgen and Pfizer. Munster is becoming increasingly important as one of Ireland's most important I.T. hubs outside of Dublin with such multinationals as Apple Computer, Amazon and Dell locating their operations in the province.
The Irish language is spoken as a first language in Gaeltachtaí (Irish speaking areas);
The Irish language in Munster, like the rest of Ireland, is also increasing outside of the Gaeltachtaí. Within the past thirty years, there has been a big increase in the amount of Gaelscoileanna (Irish language schools) outside of the Gaeltachtaí. As in Dublin and in Belfast, there is now a mini 'urban' Gaeltacht in Cork city, though it does not have the same high profile for the language.
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Connacht: Galway * (~City *) • Leitrim * • Mayo * • Roscommon * • Sligo *
Munster: Clare * • Cork * (~City *) • Kerry * • Limerick * (~City *) • Tipperary * (North~ *; South~ *) • Waterford * (~City *)
Leinster: Carlow * • Dublin * (~City *; Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown *; Fingal *; South~ *) • Kildare * • Kilkenny * • Laois * • Longford * • Louth * • Meath * • Offaly * • Westmeath * • Wexford * • Wicklow *
Ulster: Antrim † • Armagh ;† • Cavan * • Donegal * • Down † • Fermanagh † • Londonderry † • Monaghan * • Tyrone †
† denotes counties in Northern Ireland * denotes counties in the Republic of Ireland;
italics denotes non-administrative counties; (parentheses) denotes non-traditional counties
br:Cúige Mumhan ca:Munster cs:Munster da:Munster de:Munster (Irland) es:Munster eu:Munster fr:Munster (Irlande) ga:Cúige Mumhan it:Munster nl:Munster (Ierland) ja:マンスター no:Munster, Irland pl:Munster (Irlandia) ru:Манстер fi:Munster sv:Munster
