Provinces

The island of Ireland has 32 counties. Each county is part of a province and Ireland has four Provinces; Leinster in the East, Munster in the South, Connacht in the West and Ulster in the North.

Twenty-eight counties are in the Republic of Ireland and six make up Northern Ireland which is part of the United Kingdom. These six counties are also part of Ulster along with three counties from the Republic (confused yet?).

Each province has its own flag that can be seen on players' jerseys when the Irish rugby teams representing each province play in the Heineken Cup.

The counties are divided amongst the four provinces as follows:

Leinster
Louth
Dublin
Wicklow
Wexford
Kilkenny
Kildare
Offaly
Laois
Meath
Westmeath
Carlow
Longford

Munster
Cork
Kerry
Limerick
Tipperary
Clare
Waterford

Connacht
Galway
Sligo
Mayo
Roscommon
Leitrim

Ulster
Derry
Tyrone
Armagh
Antrim
Down
Fermanagh
Cavan
Donegal
Monaghan