Acallam na Senórach (Colloquy of the Ancients), an
important collection of material relating to the legend-
ary Fionn mac Cumhaill and his band of warriors,
believed to have been written in the late twelfth cen-
tury. A further tale is Tromdám Guaire(“The Oppres-
sive Company of Guaire”), the oppressive company in
question being Senchán Torpéist and his retinue of
poets who visit Guaire, king of Connacht, and make
unreasonable demands upon him. The tale is a satire
on certain aspects of the role of the poet in medieval
Ireland. The Book of Lismorealso contains a number
of Irish translations of foreign sources, including the
only extant copy of Leabhar Ser Marco Polo (The Book
of Sir Marco Polo), a translation of the Latin version
of Marco Polo’s Il Milione, probably written between
1320 and 1325. There is also a copy of Gabháltas
Séarlais Mhóir (The Conquest of Charlemagne),
believed to have been translated from Latin, possibly
about 1400, and of Stair na Lombardach(“The History
of the Lombards”), probably a fifteenth-century trans-
lation of a chapter (“De S. Pelagio papa”) from Legenda
Aurea, compiled by Jacobus de Voragine between 1260
and 1270.
CAOIMHÍN BREATNACH
References and Further Reading
The Book of Lismore. Facsimile with introduction by R.A.S.
Macalister. Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Comission, 1950.
Stokes, Whitley (ed.), Lives of the saints from the Book of
Lismore. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1890.
Ó Cuív, Brian. “Observations on the Book of Lismore.” Pro-
ceedings of the Royal Irish Academy83C (1983): 269-92.
See alsoHagiography and Martyrologies; Hiberno-
Norman (Latin); Historical Tales; Mac Carthy;
Satire
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
The main unit of local government in the later medi-
eval Lordship of Ireland was one imported from
England and with a long prior history in that country—
the county. The first counties were probably created in
the final years of the twelfth century. By the beginning
of the second decade of the thirteenth century, separate
counties of Dublin, Munster, Cork, and Waterford had
come into existence in those areas reserved to the
Crown at the time of the initial Anglo-Norman invasion
of Ireland or during the later expansion of the Lord-
ship. Further counties were created during the course
of the thirteenth century. A separate county of Uriel or
Louth was probably created in 1227 at the time that
Hugh de Lacy recovered the liberty of Ulster. County
Kerry was carved out of either the existing county of
Munster or out of County Cork, probably in the 1220s.
County Limerick had probably been carved out of the
older county of Munster by the 1230s, and by the 1250s
the remainder of that county had come to be called
County Tipperary rather than Munster. Connacht,
too, had its own sheriff by 1236, reflecting the progress
of conquest in the west and the creation of a county
there. It too subsequently had a separate county (of
Roscommon) carved out of it, perhaps in 1288. It was
not until 1297 that a separate county of Meath was
established, coterminous with the original liberty of
Meath, but with a sheriff directly responsible for only
the de Verdon portion of that liberty. All these were
royal counties, with sheriffs who were directly answer-
able to the Dublin administration. There were also
private sheriffs within the greater liberties who were
immediately answerable to the lords of these liberties
and their stewards (or seneschals). The large liberty of
Leinster had been divided into four separate adminis-
trative units from the late twelfth century on. A sepa-
rate sheriff of County Kildare is first mentioned in
1224, before the partition of the liberty itself between
coheirs. References to the other counties seem to
comeonly after the division (to Co. Wexford in 1249;
to County Carlow in 1254; to County Kilkenny in
1255), but the division itself probably followed the
preexisting division into separate counties. The liberty
of Ulster was also divided into a number of separate
counties. In the fourteenth century there also emerged
within each of the liberties counties consisting of lands
belonging to the church (cross-lands) in the liberty that
were exempt for this reason from the control of the
lord of the liberty and directly subject to the king’s
rule. These sheriffs of the cross-lands also came to
play a rule in acting in the counties within the liberties
when the steward of the liberty failed to do so. The
names of some of the counties were derived from those
of preexisting native Irish administrative and political
units, either provinces or kingdoms (Munster, Meath,
Connacht, Uriel). Others were named after specific
towns that formed the core of the counties concerned
and constituted their administrative centers (Dublin,
Cork, Waterford, Carlow, Kildare, Roscommon,
Wexford, Kilkenny, Tipperary).
The county’s main administrative official was the
sheriff, who was chosen by the local county court.
Governmental orders were transmitted from Dublin or
from England to the sheriff for local execution within
his county, and he was normally required to report
back on what had been done or why it had not been
done. The sheriff was also responsible for collecting
moneys owed to the king within his county and trans-
mitting them to the Exchequer in Dublin or spending
the money locally and accounting for that when he
next came to render his accounts in Dublin. The pro-
cess of the king’s courts was also dependent on him.LISMORE, BOOK OF