DESMOND (Des-Mumha), an ancient kingdom of Ireland, covering southern Munster. About A.D. 200 Oilill, king of Munster, divided his territory between his two sons, giving Desmond to Eoghan and Thomond or N. Munster to Cormac Cas. In the Loth Boru, representing the latter, united all Munster, but in the 12th century the MacCarthys, descendants of Eoghan, became kings of Desmond. The Norman conquests reduced Des mond in size to the present county Cork and south Kerry, and the MacCarthys were driven into the south-west of Munster where they ruled till the i6th century as "kings of Desmond" or "MacCarthy More." The title "earl of Clancare" or "Clan carthy" was bestowed on MacCarthy More by Elizabeth, but this ancient family forfeited it as a result of the Jacobite war of 169o-91. In 1329 Maurice, head of the Munster Fitzgeralds, was created earl of Desmond, but this powerful family was extin guished in the "besmond War" of 1579-83 when Gerald, the last true earl, was killed and his territories confiscated. Desmond was organized as a county for a time but ultimately its western part was added to county Kerry. In 1619 the earldom of Desmond was conferred on Richard Preston, Lord Dingwall, and after him on George Fielding, second son of the earl of Denbigh, through whom it has descended to the earls of Denbigh.