The Four Fifths of Ireland!

To travel from cache to cache anywhere in the world.  Hopefully teaching cachers a little about the provinces of Ireland along the way!  Please move this TB along quickly and don't keep it for long.  Thanks!

Ireland has historically been divided into four provinces: Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster. The Irish word for this territorial division, cúige, literally meaning "fifth part", indicates that there were once five; the fifth province, Meath, was incorporated into Leinster, with parts going to Ulster. The provinces of Ireland serve no administrative or political purposes, but function as historical and cultural entities.  Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the historic fifths of Leinster and Mide gradually merged, mainly due to the impact of the Pale, which straddled both, thereby forming the present-day province of Leinster. The ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial purposes. In later centuries, local government legislation has seen further sub-division of the historic counties.

Green: Leinster
Yellow: Munster
Blue: Connacht
Red: Ulster
 

Leinster

Leinster (Cúige Laighean) is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the east of Ireland. It comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Mide, Osraige and Leinster. Leinster represents the extended "English Pale", counties controlled directly from Dublin, at the beginning of the 1600s. The other Provinces had their own regional Presidency systems, based on a Welsh model of administration, in theory if not in fact from the 1570s and 1580s up to the 1670s, and were considered separate entities. Gradually "Leinster" subsumed the term of "The Pale", as the difference between the old Pale area and the wider province, now under English administration, grew less distinct.
 

Munster

Munster (Cúige Mumhan) is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the south of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings".  The area is famed for Irish traditional music. There are many ancient castles and monasteries in the province; this coupled with the vast green countryside and three cities makes it a feature of the tourism industry. A 5th-century bishop named Ailbe is the patron saint of Munster.
 

Connacht

Connacht (Cúige Chonnacht) is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the west of the Ireland. The name Connacht comes from the medieval ruling dynasty, the Connacht, later Connachta, whose name means "descendants of Conn", from the mythical king Conn of the Hundred Battles. Originally Connacht was a singular collective noun, but it came to be used only in the plural Connachta, partly by analogy with plural names of other dynastic territories like Ulaid and Laigin, and partly because the Connachta split into different branches.  The usual English spelling in Ireland since the Gaelic revival is Connacht, the spelling of the disused Irish singular. The official English spelling during English and British rule was the anglicisation Connaught.  This was used for the Connaught Rangers in the British Army; in the title of Queen Victoria's son Arthur, Duke of Connaught; and the Connaught Hotel, London, named after the Duke in 1917. The Connaught spelling is now rare in the Republic of Ireland. State bodies use Connacht.

Ulster

Ulster (Cúige Uladh) is one of the provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a rí ruirech, or "king of over-kings".  Ulster was a central topic role in the parliamentary debates that eventually resulted in the Government of Ireland Act 1920.  The province's early story extends further back than written records and survives mainly in legends such as the Ulster Cycle. The archaeology of Ulster, formerly called Ulandia, gives examples of "ritual enclosures", such as the "Giant's Ring" near Belfast, which is an earth bank about 590 feet in diameter and 15 feet high, in the centre of which there is a dolmen.

Ireland (Éire)

Each of the provinces has a unique souvenir for caches found within their borders, so if you ever visit the Emerald Isle try to log finds in as many of these areas as you can.  You also get a separate souvenir for cache finds in Dublin.