Interesting; I guess what was boggling my mind is "where" (for lack of a better word) do the Irish peerages exist?  I suppose (with my ingrained American thinking) I was having a hard time imagining the peerages existing in the Republic of Ireland, with no monarchy.  And for the same reason, I'm probably trying to subconsciously tie titles to land more than is valid.  I think things like this interest me not so much per se, but more as logic problems.  -)  - 20:59, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)