Irish feudal barony

In Ireland, most of the originally-feudal titular baronies disappeared through obsolescence or disuse. The exception being those feudal baronies with a solid root of title, and those held by Irish or British peers. The Lordship of Fingal was granted to Walter de Lacy, Lord of Meath for seven knight's fees, "although the lords thereof hold elsewhere in capite", according to the unusual grant in 1208 by King John as Lord of Ireland, who allowed de Lacy to retain custody of his fees.^[2] Fingal at the time spread from the River Liffey to the River Delvin, north of Dublin, similar to the administrative boundary of today's County Fingal (minus Dublin City) created from part of County Dublin in 1994. A small number of titular feudal baronies continued to exist either as subordinate titles held by members of the Peerage of Ireland, Peerage of Great Britain or the Peerage of the United Kingdom, or as titles held by grand serjeanty, such as, originally, Fingal. Those few Irish Feudal Baronies that survive all are considered as "incorporeal hereditaments", and may continue to exist as interests or estates in land, registrable as such upon conveyance or inheritance under the Registry of Deeds of the Government of Ireland, or as titles held in gross as personal rights, and not as real interests in land.

Following a report by the Law Reform Commission,^[3] the system of feudal tenure as such, in so far as it had survived, was abolished by the Oireachtas in the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act (no. 27 of 2009); fee tail was also abolished.^[4] However, estates and interests in land, including incorporeal hereditaments, continue. Formerly registered or proven feudal titles with a solid root of title, and the submerged feudal titles of surviving Irish or British peers were not affected, and continue to exist as personal rights, now held in gross. However, those obsolete or unregistered feudal titles, and those that lapsed into desuetude after 1662, when the Irish Parliament passed the Abolition of Tenures Act, no longer exist as incorporeal hereditaments, nor as personal rights, and cannot be revived.

Examples of hereditary baronial knighthoods that remain in Ireland include the Knight of Glin and the Knight of Kerry.

• Barony (Ireland)
• List of baronies of Ireland
• English feudal barony
• Scottish feudal barony
• Scottish feudal lordship
• Marcher lordship
• Baron
• Lord
• List of baronies in the peerages of the British Isles
• Feudalism

• A View of the Legal Institutions, Honorary Hereditary Offices, and Feudal Baronies established in Ireland, by William Lynch, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, published by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, Paternoster Row, London, 1830.