The county was part of the central plain of Ireland, but the diversified terrain contained several mountain ranges: the Arra Hills, Silvermine Mountains and the Devil's Bit. The county was landlocked. The southern part of the former county is drained by the River Suir; the northern part is drained by tributaries of the River Shannon which widens into Lough Derg. The centre of the county included much of the Golden Vale, a rich pastoral stretch of land in the Suir basin which extends into counties Limerick and Cork.
Civil parishes in Ireland were delineated after the Down Survey as an intermediate subdivision, with multiple townlands per parish and multiple parishes per barony. The civil parishes had some use in local taxation and were included on the nineteenth century maps of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland.[5] For poor law purposes district electoral divisions replaced the civil parishes in the mid-nineteenth century. There were 86 civil parishes in the county.[6]
Local government
The North Riding had existed as a judicial county following the establishment of assize courts in 1838. The administrative county of Tipperary, North Riding was created under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 as the area of the existing judicial county of the North Riding of the county of Tipperary, except for the district electoral divisions of Cappagh, Curraheen and Glengar (which were transferred to the South Riding). It took effect on 1 April 1899.[7][8]
The council also claimed the title of The Premier County,[14] a title which was usually taken to refer to the undivided territory of both north and south Tipperary. Following the division of the original county, North Tipperary was not granted its own coat of arms.
References
^Census of Ireland, 2011.Central Statistics Office, "Actual and Percentage Change in Population by Aggregate Town or Rural Area, Sex, Province County or City, Statistical Indicator and Census Year".
^"Tipperary County Council". 29 May 2014. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Tipperary County Council will become an official unified authority on Tuesday, 3rd June 2014. The new authority combines the existing administration of North Tipperary County Council and South Tipperary County Council.