The Republic of Ireland is divided into 30
administrative regions, mostly tied to the 26
constituent counties (county Tipperary is divided in two
and county Dublin in four). Each region has a directly
elected Council which is responsible for many of the
issues of local government. These 30 divisions are shown
on the map on the above, with the numbers given in the
key below. The counties themselves were laid out several
centuries ago by English settlers, and have survived
largely unchanged since then.
