Cork
The earliest inhabitants of the south-western part of this extensive territory are designated by Ptolemy Uterni or Uterini, and by other writers Iberni, Iberi, and Juerni. They occupied most of the southern part of the country subsequently called Desmond: their name and situation prove them to have been of Spanish Iberian origin, and the former, as well as that of the tribes from which they sprung, and the designation Ibernia or Hibernia, applied to the whole island even by Ptolemy, was derived from the western situation of the country which they inhabited. From Ptolemy's map it appears that the most eastern maritime part of the county in the south of Cork was, in the same age, inhabited by a people whom he called Vodiæ or Vodii, but who are unnoticed both by Sir James Ware and Dr. Charles O'Conor. The Coriondi, whose name still bears some affinity to the Irish appellation of this tract, were, according to Smith, the inhabitants of the middle and northern parts, particularly near the present city of Cork, and are said to have sprung from the Coritani, a British tribe occupying a tract in the eastern part of England. The ancient divisions of the country prior to the English settlements, were intricate, and at present can with difficulty be ascertained. The whole formed the southern and most important part of the petty kingdom of Cork or Desmond, which comprised also the western portion of the present county of Waterford, and all Kerry. Desmond, signifying "South Munster," was more properly the name of only the south-western part of the principality, which was divided into three portions, of which the whole of that called Ivelagh or Evaugh, including the country between Bantry and Baltimore, and also that called Bear, lying between Bantry and the Kenmare river, are included in the modern county of Cork. Bear still partly retains its ancient name, being divided into the baronies of Bear and Bantry; but Evaugh is included in the barony of West Carbery, which, with East Carbery, Kinalmeaky, and Ibawn or Ibane and Barryroe, anciently formed an extensive territory, deriving its name from its chieftain, Carbry Riada and in which are said to have been settled four of the eight families of royal extraction in Munster, the head of one of which was McCarty Reagh, sometimes styled prince of Carbery. Kerrycurrihy was anciently called Muskerry llane, and comprised also the barony of Imokilly, on the north side of Cork harbour: the only maritime territory remaining unnoticed, viz. Kinnalea, was formerly called Insovenagh. Besides Kerrycurrihy and Imokilly, the entire central part of the county, between the rivers Lee and Blackwater, formed a portion of the ancient territory of Muskerry, which name the western portion of it still retains. The north-western extremity of the county, forming the present barony of Duhallow, is in some old writings called Alla and Dubh Alla; and its chief, who, to a very late period, enjoyed almost regal authority, was sometimes styled prince of Duhallow. The remainder, to the north of the Blackwater, formed, before the English conquests, a principality of the O'Keefes, called Fearmuigh.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1840 by Samuel Lewis