Ossory

Ossory was a Gaelic lordship in the Nore valley. After the Norman invasion broke the old kingdom, the Mac Giolla Phadraig family held its northern remnant in Upper Ossory; in 1337 its chief was Carroll.

The Mac Giolla Phadraigs moved south into Kilkenny in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In 1541 Barnaby Fitzpatrick surrendered his lands to Henry VIII and received them back as Baron Upper Ossory. In 1600 Upper Ossory was transferred to Queen's County, apart from the district around Durrow.