Borough constituency

Belfast and Carrickfergus were the two most important towns on the east coast of Ulster. Carrickfergus, on the northern side of Belfast Lough, had been an important military outpost and naval base since the Anglo-Normans built a castle there in the twelfth century. The town had been granted a new charter in 1569, and thereafter continued to prosper, especially under the auspices of its Jacobean patron, Sir Arthur Chichester. P. Robinson, Carrickfergus (Irish Historic Towns Atlas, no.

The city of Limerick had been the dominant settlement of south-west Ireland since the middle ages. Its position, straddling the River Shannon between counties Limerick and Clare, and the strength of its walls and castle, gave it strategic, as well as commercial, importance. Granted its charter as a city by James I, thereafter it was governed by a mayor, two sheriffs and 12 aldermen, usually drawn from a small group of Old English families which had come to dominate its trade. J.

The city of Cork and the town of Youghal occupied similar harbour sites accessible to the south coast of co. Cork, some 30 miles apart. With a population of about 5,500 in 1641, Cork was five times larger than its neighbour, but size did not necessarily equate with economic importance. M.

Although situated in separate counties, and differing considerably in size and economic importance, in the early seventeenth century the city of Waterford and the town of Clonmel had much in common. They were both on the River Suir, and the bulk of Clonmel’s trade was conducted via the port of Waterford and its deep-water harbour.

Dublin was the most important economic centre in Ireland, as well as being the seat of government and the home of the law courts, two cathedrals and Ireland’s only university. In the first four decades of the seventeenth century Dublin’s population grew four-fold, reaching perhaps 20,000 by the outbreak of the Irish rebellion in 1641. At the same time, the city’s trade was booming, raising 41 per cent of the national customs revenue in 1634-40. M.

The County Cork towns of Bandon and Kinsale were linked geographically and economically by the River Bandon. At the mouth of the river lay Kinsale, an ancient fishing town made strategically important by its narrow natural harbour. Although of secondary trading importance to Cork and Youghal, Kinsale’s prosperity increased in the mid-1630s when Lord Deputy Wentworth (Sir Thomas Wentworth†) chose the port as his naval base on the south coast of Ireland. CSP Ire. 1633-47, pp. 83-4; Strafforde Lttrs. i.

The city of Londonderry and the town of Coleraine – situated respectively on the Rivers Foyle and Bann in northern Ulster – owed their seventeenth century form to the London companies’ plantation established in 1610. Existing settlements at both sites were swept away as new walls, roads and houses were laid out; but after this initial burst of activity, the building of both towns slowed considerably. J.S. Curl, The Londonderry Plantation (Chichester, 1986), 26-7, 43-53; A. Thomas, Derry-Londonderry (Irish Historic Towns Atlas no.