Urmhumhain
Ormond · east Munster
Urmhumhain, in English Ormond, said OOR-woo-in. A kingdom.
East Munster. The third of the three Munsters, and the one that became a Butler title rather than a Gaelic kingdom.
The name
east Munster
Where
East Tipperary and the country toward Kilkenny.
In today's counties: Tipperary (Tiobraid Árann), Kilkenny (Cill Chainnigh), Offaly (Uíbh Fhailí).
When it mattered
As a Gaelic kingdom it was always the smallest of the three; as a Butler earldom it lasted into the modern age.
Ormond is the odd one out. Thomond and Desmond were real Gaelic kingdoms with Gaelic dynasties; east Munster never settled into one in the same way, and the name is best known from what came after.
The Butlers, Norman in origin and hereditary wine stewards to the king, took the title earl of Ormond in 1328 and held Kilkenny Castle until 1935. For six hundred years the Butlers of Ormond and the Fitzgeralds of Desmond were the two poles of southern Irish politics, and much of what happened in Munster happened because of which of them was up.
What is left of the name
Upper and Lower Ormond are still baronies in Tipperary, and the name is on streets and quays in Dublin.
Names out of it
Families on this site that belong to Ormond. A surname is not a pedigree, and plenty of people carry these names for reasons that have nothing to do with the old kingdom.
Next to it
- Tuadhmhumhain (Thomond)
- Deasmhumhain (Desmond)
- Éile (Ely)
- Osraige (Ossory)