County Cork, A maritime county of the province of MUNSTER, and the largest in IRELAND, bounded on the east by the counties of Tipperary and Waterford, on the north by that of Limerick, on the west by that of Kerry, and on the south-west, south, and south-east by St. George's Channel. The earliest inhabitants of the south-western part of this extensive territory are designated by Ptolemy Uterni or Uterini, and by other writers Iberni, Iberi, and Juerni. They occupied most of the southern part of the country subsequently called Desmond: their name and situation prove them to have been of Spanish Iberian origin, and the former, as well as that of the tribes from which they sprung, and the designation Hibernia, applied to the whole island even by Ptolemy, was derived from the western situation of the country which they inhabited. From Ptolemy's map it appears that the most eastern maritime part of the county in the south of Cork was, in the same age, inhabited by a people whom he called Vodiae, or Vodii, but who are unnoticed both by Sir James Ware and Dr. Charles O'Connor.
| The Coriondi, whose name still bears some affinity to the Irish appellation of this tract, were, according to Smith, the inhabitants of the middle and northern parts, particularly near the present city of Cork, and are said to have spring from the Coritani, a British tribe occupying a tract in the eastern part of England. The ancient divisions of the country prior to the English settlements, were intricate, and at present can with difficulty be ascertained. The whole formed the southern and most important part of the petty kingdom of Cork or Desmond, which comprised also the western portion of the present county of Waterford, and all Kerry. |  |
The monastery at Cork, as recorded in the annals, first came under Viking attack in 820. The disruption of this period of Irish monasticism is traditionally attributed to the arrival of Scandinavian raiders in the ninth century. In 848, Olchobar, the king of Cashel, is recorded on the Viking dun of Corcaigh. By this date there seems to have been a well established Scandinavian settlement around the Lee. In the three and a half centuries following this period there were only three recorded attacks on the monastery.
In 902, Dublin is evacuated by the Norse and soon large Viking fleets arrive in Waterford. The foundation of the Norse town Limerick preceded many battles of Brian Boru. The county of Limerick is located at the south-west of Ireland, where the Shannon river widens before running into the Atlantic. From 920-950, Dublin Kings strike coins at York. Following their eventual defeat at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 the Norse survivors continued to live in the separate communities they had established in Cork, Dublin, Limerick, Waterford and Wexford. They and their descendants became known as Ostmen from this time on.
| Desmond, signifying "South Munster," was more properly the name of only the south-western part of the principality, which was divided into three portions, of which the whole of that called Ivelagh or Evaugh, including the country between Bantry and Baltimore, and also that called Bear, lying between Bantry and the Kenmare river, are included in the modern county of Cork. Bear still partly retains its ancient name, being divided into the baronies of Bear and Bantry; but Evaugh is included in the barony of West Carbery, which, with East Carbery, Kinalmeaky, and Ibawn or Ibane and Barryroe, anciently formed an extensive territory, deriving its name from its chieftain, Carbry Riada, and in which are said to have been settled four of the eight families of royal extraction in Munster, the head of one of which was McCarty Reagh, sometimes styled prince of Carber. |
During the reign of Edward V a law was passed to compel certain Irish to adopt surnames as a method to track and control them more: "They shall take unto them a Surname, either of some Town, or some Color, as Black or Brown, or some Art or Science, as Smyth or Carpenter, or some Office, as Cooke or Butler." And as late as the beginning of the nineteenth century a similar decree compelling Jews in Germany and Austria to add a German surname to the single names that they had previously used. In some cases it is clear which origin type a certain surname is. However many surnames are not so easily classified. Some may have several seperate origins, having been derived from more than one original name. Monogenetic names evolved from a single origin and Polygenetic names evolved from multiple separate origins - The same surname may have arisen in different areas of the country completely seperately.