County Clare () is a county in the province of Munster in the Southern part of Ireland, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council is the local authority. The county had a population of 127,938 at the 2022 census. The county seat and largest settlement is Ennis.
Etymology
There are two main hypotheses for the origins of the county name "Clare". One is that the name is derived from Thomas de Clare, an Anglo-Norman peer and soldier from the de Clare family, who was deeply embroiled in local politics and fighting in the 1270s and 1280 and had acquired land in Kilkenny and Thomond that included the Castle of Clare. In 1590 County Clare was named after the castle, which is in a strategic location. An alternative hypothesis is that the county name Clare comes from the settlement of Clare (now Clarecastle), whose Irish name (plank bridge) refers to a crossing over the River Fergus.
Geography and subdivisions
Clare is north-west of the River Shannon covering a total area of . Clare is the seventh largest of Ireland's 32 traditional counties in area and the 19th largest in terms of population. It is bordered by two counties in Munster and one county in Connacht: County Limerick to the south, County Tipperary to the east, and County Galway to the north. Clare's nickname is the Banner County.
Baronies, parishes and townlands
thumb|Baronies of Clare
The county is divided into the baronies of Bunratty Lower, Bunratty Upper, Burren, Clonderalaw, Corcomroe, Ibrickan, Inchiquin, Islands, Moyarta, Tulla Lower and Tulla Upper. These in turn are divided into civil parishes, which are themselves divided into townlands. These divisions are cadastral, defining land boundaries and ownership, rather than administrative.
Towns and villages
- Ardnacrusha
- Ballynacally
- Ballyvaughan
- Barefield
- Boston
- Bridgetown
- Broadford
- Bunratty
- Carrigaholt
- Carron
- Clarecastle
- Clonlara
- Connolly
- Coolmeen
- Cooraclare
- Corofin
- Cranny
- Cratloe
- Cree (Creegh)
- Cross
- Crusheen
- Doolin
- Doonaha
- Doonbeg
- Ennis
- Ennistymon
- Fanore
- Feakle
- Inagh
- Inch
- Kilbaha
- Kilfenora
- Kilkee
- Kilkishen
- Kildysart
- Killaloe
- Killimer
- Kilmaley
- Kilmihil
- Kilmurry McMahon
- Kilnaboy
- Kilnamona
- Kilrush
- Labasheeda
- Lahinch
- Liscannor
- Lisdoonvarna
- Lissycasey
- Meelick
- Milltown Malbay
- Mountshannon
- Mullagh
- Newmarket-on-Fergus
- O'Brien's Bridge
- O'Callaghan's Mills
- Ogonnelloe
- Parteen
- Quilty
- Quin
- Ruan
- Scariff
- Shannon
- Sixmilebridge
- Toonagh
- Tuamgraney
- Tubber
- Tulla
- Whitegate
Physical geography
thumb|right|The [[Cliffs of Moher]]
Bodies of water define much of the physical boundaries of Clare. To the south-east is the River Shannon, Ireland's longest river, and to the south is the Shannon Estuary. The border to the north-east is defined by Lough Derg which is the third-largest lake in Ireland. To the west is the Atlantic Ocean, and to the north is Galway Bay. Loop Head (Irish: Ceann Léime, meaning 'leap head') is the county's westernmost point of land.
County Clare contains The Burren, a unique karst region, which contains rare flowers and fauna. At the western edge of The Burren, facing the Atlantic Ocean, are the Cliffs of Moher. The highest point in County Clare is Moylussa, , in the Slieve Bernagh range in the east of the county.
The following islands lie off the coast of the county:
- Aughinish
- Inishmore (or Deer) Island
- Inishloe
- Mutton Island
- Scattery Island
History
thumb|left|[[Poulnabrone dolmen in The Burren]]
County Clare hosts the oldest-known evidence of human activity in Ireland. The patella of a bear, which was subject to butchering close to the time of death, was found in the Alice and Gwendoline Cave, near Edenvale House, Clarecastle. The bone features a number of linear-cut marks, and has been dated to circa 10,500 BC, from the Paleolithic era. This discovery, publicized in 2017, pushed back Ireland's occupation by 2,500 years—what was previously regarded as the oldest site of occupation was the Mesolithic site of Mount Sandel, County Londonderry. This bear bone was discovered in 1903 during an archaeological excavation but was not studied until over a century later.
There was a Neolithic civilization in the Clare area—the name of the peoples is unknown, but the Prehistoric peoples left evidence behind in the form of ancient dolmen: single-chamber megalithic tombs, usually consisting of three or more upright stones. Clare is one of the richest places in Ireland for these tombs. The most noted one is in The Burren area; it is known as Poulnabrone dolmen, which translates to "hole of sorrows". The remains of the people inside the tomb have been excavated and dated to 3800 BC. Within his map, Ptolemy names the Gaelic tribes inhabiting it and the areas in which they resided; in the area of Clare, he identified a tribe known as the Gangani. Historians have found the tribes on the west of Ireland the most difficult to identify with known peoples; however, historians William Camden and Charles O'Conor speculated a possible connection between the Gangani and the Concani, one of the eleven tribes in the confederacy of the Cantabri in the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula.
thumb|The [[Cross of Tau|Tau Cross at Roughan Hill near Corofin, County Clare, Ireland]]
During the Early Middle Ages, the area was part of the Kingdom of Connacht ruled by the Uí Fiachrach Aidhne. In the Middle Ages, it was annexed to the Kingdom of Munster to be settled by the Dalcassians. It was renamed Thomond, meaning North Munster. Brian Boru became a leader from here during this period, perhaps the most noted High King of Ireland.
From 1118 onwards the Kingdom of Thomond was in place as its own petty kingdom, ruled by the O'Brien clan. After the Norman invasion of Ireland, Thomas de Clare, established the short-lived Norman lordship of Thomond. His son Richard de Clare was killed at the Battle of Dysert O'Dea in 1318 during Edward Bruce's invasion.
English colonization
thumb|1794 map of Ireland, with County Clare coloured as neither part of [[Connacht nor Munster]]
In 1543, during the Tudor conquest of Ireland, Murrough O'Brien, by surrender and regrant to Henry VIII, became Earl of Thomond within Henry's Kingdom of Ireland. Henry Sidney as Lord Deputy of Ireland responded to the Desmond Rebellion by creating the presidency of Connaught in 1569 and presidency of Munster in 1570. He transferred Thomond from Munster to Connaught, which he shired, Thomond becoming County Clare.
About 1600, Clare was removed from the presidency of Connaught and made a presidency in its own right under the Earl of Thomond. When Henry O'Brien, 5th Earl of Thomond died in 1639, Lord Deputy Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford decreed Clare should return to the presidency of Munster, but the Wars of the Three Kingdoms delayed this until the Restoration of 1660.
Clare's county nickname is the Banner County, for which various origins have been suggested: the banners captured by Clare's Dragoons at the Battle of Ramillies; or the banner of Catholic emancipation raised by Daniel O'Connell's victory in the 1828 County Clare by-election that led to Parliament passing the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829.
Scattery Island, in the Mouth of the Shannon off the Clare coast, was transferred to Limerick Corporation and the county of the city of Limerick after the dissolution of the monasteries in the mid-16th century. It was assigned to County Clare after the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840. Under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, part of the judicial county of Galway (Drummaan, Inishcaltra North and Mountshannon electoral divisions) was transferred to county Clare. This area contains the village of Mountshannon on the north-western shore of Lough Derg.
Governance and politics
thumb|The island of Ireland, showing location of County Clare.
Local government
The local authority for the county is Clare County Council.
Fianna Fáil lost its overall majority on the council in 2004. As of the 2009 local election, Fianna Fáil is the largest party, with 13 of the 28 seats.
The county seat is at Ennis, which also serves as a major regional hub for County Clare. Among its emergency services, it contains the Ennis Hospital, the HQ of the Clare Divisional Garda, the Clare Fire Brigade and Civil Defence.
The council has two representatives on the Southern Regional Assembly, where it is part of the Mid-West strategic planning area.
Former districts
Prior to 2014, there were four town councils in Clare: Ennis, Kilrush, Kilkee and Shannon. All town councils in Ireland were abolished under the Local Government Reform Act 2014.
National politics
Since 1921, County Clare has been represented in Dáil Éireann by the constituency of Clare, which currently has four Teachtaí Dála (TDs). Since 2020, the whole of the county has been in the constituency. At various times, portions of County Clare have been in other constituencies: Clare–South Galway (1969–1977), Galway West (1977–1981), Limerick East (1992–2011) and Limerick City (2011–2020).
The constituency was historically a Fianna Fáil stronghold. Prominent former TDs for Clare include Éamon de Valera, who became Taoiseach and President and former president Patrick Hillery.
It is part of the European Parliament constituency of South (5 seats).