History of Tipperary
The name for Tipperary (Hotels, Tipperary, Ireland) comes from the Gaelic Tiobraid Arann, meaning well of Era. Tipperary was controlled by the Kings of Munster until the ascension of Brian Boru. Tipperary was predominately free from Viking exploitation, and the coming of the Anglo-Normans saw Tipperary placed in the protective custody of the Butlers until the forces of Oliver Cromwell ravaged Ireland.
An important region in Co. Tipperary called Magh Feimhein (Magh, pronounced something like mwa, means plain). It seems to have been a sacred plain, the centre of the worship of the goddess Brighid. In this plain was the fairy palace of the mythical king Bodhbh Dearg, of whom we read in the story of the Children of Lir ; and it was dominated by the mountain called Sliabh na mBan Finn (now Slievenaman), hill of the white women -unquestionably a group of goddesses ; and by the enormous tumulus Cnoc Rafann, the largest artificial earth-mound in Ireland. Though this in outline resembles a Norman motte, the exceptional size of the structure points to the probability of its being much earlier in origin. It might well have been scarped and otherwise manipulated by the Normans to serve their own purposes.
The shiring of Munster is as old as King Johns time ; Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Kerry, and Tipperary all appear as counties in documents of his period. But the division was not maintained throughout the whole period of the Plantagenets and Tudors, though the complex history of the delimitations and names of the shires and territories would hardly be in place here ; it has little, to do with the geography viewed in its bearing on the population. It is, however, interesting to notice that Tipperary remained a county palatine (that is, a county to the administrator of which sovereign power was delegated) till 1715, when the second Duke of Ormond was attainted and his jurisdiction abolished. This was the last relic of a form of government that had at the beginning of the English occupation been established over most of the country.
Co. Tipperary
A very large county, lying entirely inland, and much diversified by groups of mountains–the Silvern-lines and Devils Bit groups in the north, the loftier Galtees (3016 ft.) and Knockmealdowns (2609 ft.), and the fine, isolated Shevenaman (2564 ft.), in the. south. Else- where the surface is of the type characteristic of the Central Plain-slightly undulating limestone, country, mostly in permanent pasture. The Golden Vale of Tipperary (Holiday Cottages, Tipperary, Ireland), famed for its fertility, stretches from Fcthard westward by Cashel and Tipperary town to Kilmallock. Except for Lough Derg on the Shannon, which flows along the north-western edge of the county, lakes are almost absent. The county is drained by tributaries of the Shannon in the north and by the Suir in the centre and south.
Clonmel, the chief town, is beautifully situated on the Suir. Lower down the same river is Carrick- on-Suir, and further up are Caher and Thurles. Cashel, famous for its ecclesi- astical ruins, Tipperary, and Fethard also lie towards the centre; Nenage, Roscrea, and Templemore in the north.