County Leitrim

County Leitrim (Contae Liatroma) is one of the of the  and is part of the province of. Its name derives from the Irish Liath Druim, meaning "grey ridge."

Location
Leitrim has a short length of  coastline but is a mostly inland county. Neighbouring Leitrim are the counties of  to the north,  to the northeast, and  to the east, the  county of  to the south and, to the west, the Connacht counties of  and. Fermanagh is in while all the other neighbouring counties are within the Republic. The and  divide Leitrim into North Leitrim and South Leitrim. The Shannon is linked to the via the.

History
In ancient times Leitrim formed the western half of the. This region was long influenced by the O'Rourke family of, whose heraldic lion occupies the official county crest to this day. Close ties initially existed with East Breifne, now, and the O'Reilly clan seated there. The invaded in the 13th century and occupied the south of Breifne until the exile of Irish landholders in 1620.

British Lord Deputy had ordered the legal establishment of "Leitrim County" a half-century prior, in 1565. Perrott also demarked the current county borders around 1583, enclosing the namesake grey mountains of the northwest and boggy glades of the southeast. Five forests are traditionally said to have stood in Leitrim up till the 17th century. Today's vast marshes likely formed soon after the county's trees were felled. Dampness quickly permeated the area's reputation: locals boasted that farmland "wasn't sold by the acre&mdash;it was sold by the gallon!". With such soil suitable solely for cows and potatoes, Leitrim's 155,000 residents (as of the 1841 census) were ravaged by the. After sixty years, the wounds had started to heal. spent the turn of the fascinated with  and the Sligo-march.

General


Today the county has the lowest population and the lowest population density in the Republic and is the smallest county by area in the province of Connacht. Leitrim has the second highest suicide rate by county over the past five years, and the highest in 2005. It also has the highest amount of elderly people per capita of any Irish county, with 7.6% over the age of 75.

Leitrim has the shortest coastline of any county, nine miles to the south-west of. The county town is (1,868 inhabitants). In 2003, the first sets of s in Leitrim were installed at a in Carrick-on-Shannon.

People connected to Leitrim

 * , a leader of the 1916 Rising
 * , writer
 * , gaelic footballer
 * , Chief of Staff, Irish Republican Army
 * , gaelic football manager
 * , vocalist
 * , winner, Eurovision Song Contest
 * , Australian novelist living in County Leitrim
 * , international rugby player, olympic shot-putter
 * , vocalist
 * , winner, Eurovision Song Contest
 * , Australian novelist living in County Leitrim
 * , international rugby player, olympic shot-putter
 * , winner, Eurovision Song Contest
 * , Australian novelist living in County Leitrim
 * , international rugby player, olympic shot-putter
 * , Australian novelist living in County Leitrim
 * , international rugby player, olympic shot-putter
 * , international rugby player, olympic shot-putter
 * , international rugby player, olympic shot-putter
 * , international rugby player, olympic shot-putter
 * , international rugby player, olympic shot-putter