Baronies were created after the
Norman invasion as subdivisions of
counties and were used for administration. Baronies continue to be regarded as officially defined units, but they are no longer used for many administrative purposes. While they have been administratively obsolete since 1898, they continue to be used in land registration and specification such as in planning permissions. In many cases, a barony corresponds to an earlier
Gaelic túath which had submitted to the Crown. The ancestor of the
De Barry family in Ireland,
Philip de Barry, received from his uncle,
Robert Fitz-Stephen, a grant of three cantreds in his own half of the
Kingdom of Desmond ("the kingdom of Cork") viz. Olethan, Muschiri-on-Dunnegan (or Muskerry Donegan) and Killyde (or Killede) by the service of ten knights. These cantreds became the
baronies or hundreds of
Oliehan,
Oryrry and
Ogormliehan respectively. The name "Oliehan" is an anglicisation of the Gaelic
Uí Liatháin which refers to the
early medieval kingdom of the
Uí Liatháin. This
petty kingdom encompassed most of the land in Barrymore and the neighbouring barony of
Kinnatalloon. Oryrry is currently known as the
Barony of Orrery and Kilmore. The name Killyde survives in "Killeady Hills", the name of the hill country south of the city of Cork. According to Rev. Barry, the baronies were "coextensive with the ecclesiastical deaneries of Olethan and Muscry Donnegan in the
diocese of Cloyne, and Ocurblethan, in the
diocese of Cork. == Civil parishes and settlements ==