Leinster [OIr.
Lagin,
Laigin, people (of Lug?); ON
staðir, steadings]. A province of
Ireland occupying much of the island east of the
Shannon, the second largest (7,850 square miles) of the four, including
Connacht,
Munster, and
Ulster, whose borders were drawn in the 17th ceentury. In pre-conquest Ireland, as Cóiced Laigín, it had been one of five, when
Mide is counted separately or when Munster is counted as two. Within its borders are the counties of Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois (until 1922, Queens), Longford, Louth,
Meath, Offaly (until 1922, Kings), Westmeath, Wexford, and Wicklow. Much of the northern portion of the modern province, especially the megaliths, passage-graves, and pre-Christian religious sites of the
Boyne valley in counties Meath and Westmeath, was historically part of Mide and are not usually identified with Leinster.
From earliest times there were two royal seats for Leinster kings, the major one being the 34-acre hill-fort at
Dún Ailinne [Knockawlin], the largest in Ireland, near Kilcullen, Co. Kildare, and the second
Dind Ríg on the banks of the Barrow River, Co. Carlow, home to the kings of south Leinster. The earthworks at Dind Ríg are the foundation of what was once a large citadel; the story of its being burned to the ground by
Labraid Loingsech is told in
Orgain Denna Ríg [The Destruction of Dind Ríg]. Remains of two of the most important Christian monastic sites,
Clonmacnoise (earlier in Mide) and
Glendalough, are also found in Leinster.
Bibliography
See The Book of Leinster: Lebor Laighnech, ed. R. I. Best, Osborn Bergin, and M. A. O'Brien (5 vols., Dublin, 1954–67);
Alfred P. Smyth , Celtic Leinster (Dublin, 1982).
