RMS Leinster was a vessel operated by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, served as the Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire)-Holyhead mailboat until she was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine UB-123 on 10 October 1918, while bound for Holyhead. She went down just outside Dublin Bay at a point 4 nautical miles (7.4 km) east of the Kish light. Over 500 people perished in the sinking – the greatest single loss of life in the Irish Sea.
The official death toll was 501. However, research by Roy Stokes, author of Death in the Irish Sea: The Sinking of RMS Leinster and fellow writer Philip Lecane, author of Torpedoed! The RMS Leinster Disaster, suggests the actual total was higher.
In 1895, the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company ordered four steamers for Royal Mail service, named for four provinces of Ireland, RMS Leinster, Connaught, Munster and Ulster; these four were commonly referred to as "The Provinces".
The Leinster was a 2,640-ton packet steamship with a service speed of 24 knots (44 km/h). The vessel, which was built at Laird's in Birkenhead, England, was driven by a single eight-cylinder triple-expansion steam engine. During the First World War, the twin-propellered ship was armed with one 12 pounder and two signal guns.
Leinster (/ˈlɛnstər/ — Irish: Laighin / Cúige Laighean — pronounced [ˈl̪ˠaːjɪnʲ]) is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the east of Ireland. It comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Mide, Osraige and Leinster. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of Ireland, the historic fifths of Leinster and Mide gradually merged, mainly due to the impact of the Pale, which straddled both, thereby forming the present-day province of Leinster. The ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial purposes. In later centuries, local government legislation has seen further sub-division of the historic counties.
Leinster has no official function for local-government purposes. However, the province is an officially recognised subdivision of Ireland. It is listed on ISO-3166-2 as one of the four provinces of Ireland and "IE-L" is attributed to Leinster as its country sub-division code.
Leinster had a population of 2,504,814 according to the 2011 census, making it the most populous province in the country The traditional flag of Leinster features a golden harp on a green background.
Leinster was a constituency of the European Parliament in Ireland between 1979 and 2004. It elected 3 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in the 1979, 1984 and 1989 elections and 4 MEPs in the elections of 1994 and 1999 using the single transferable vote form of proportional representation (PR-STV).
The constituency was created in 1979 for the first direct elections to the European Parliament. It comprised the counties of Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Louth, Meath, Offaly, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow from the historic province of Leinster excluding the County Dublin area. It was abolished under the European Parliament Elections (Amendment) Act 2004 and succeeded by the new East constituency.
Note: The columns in this table are used only for presentational purposes, and no significance should be attached to the order of columns. For details of the order in which seats were won at each election, see the detailed results of that election.
Leinster is an Irish province.
Leinster may also refer to: