Earl of Carrick, in the barony of Iffa and Offa East, County Tipperary, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland.
The title was first created in 1315 for Sir Edmund Butler, Justiciar of Ireland, by King Edward II. The title is linked to the manor of Karryk Mac Gryffin (the modern town of Carrick-on-Suir) in the barony of Iffa and Offa East, County Tipperary. Edmund was the father of James Butler, 1st Earl of Ormond, and John Butler of Clonamicklon. However, upon his death in 1321, the earldom was not inherited by his son and heir.
Later, with the second creation of the title, it was bestowed on the descendants of his second son, John, who became Viscounts Ikerrin and Earls of Carrick. Sir Edmund Butler had distinguished himself in the fight against the Bruce invasion of Ireland.
In 1629, Lieutenant-General Sir Pierce Butler was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Viscount Ikerrin. He was the descendant of John Butler of Clonamicklon, the second son of Edmund Butler, Earl of Carrick. The Viscount's great-great-grandson, the 4th Viscount, sat in the Irish Parliament of James II and was outlawed in 1689 after the accession of William III and Mary II. However, the outlawry was annulled in 1698 and he was able to take his seat in the Irish House of Lords. Lord Ikerrin later achieved the military rank of Brigadier-General.
His son, the 5th Viscount, died at an early age and was succeeded by his uncle, the 6th Viscount. He was a Protestant clergyman. His eldest son, the 7th Viscount, died as a child and was succeeded by his younger brother, Somerset Hamilton Butler. In 1748, the 8th Viscount Ikerrin was made Earl of Carrick in the Peerage of Ireland in memorial of his remote ancestor, John Butler, mentioned above.
His eldest son, the 2nd Earl, represented Killyleagh in the Irish House of Commons. He then was succeeded by his eldest son, the 3rd Earl. He sat in the House of Lords as an Irish representative peer between 1819 and 1838. His second son, the fifth Earl (who succeeded his elder brother), was a Captain in the Grenadier Guards and fought in the Crimean War.
He died unmarried and was succeeded by his first cousin once removed, the sixth Earl. He was the grandson of Lieutenant-General the Hon. Henry Edward Butler, second son of the second Earl. Lord Carrick was a Major in the Welsh Regiment. His son, the seventh Earl, was Comptroller of the Household to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1913 to 1915 and fought in the First World War, where he was mentioned in despatches. Lord Carrick had already in 1912 been created Baron Butler of Mount Juliet, in the County of Kilkenny, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, which gave him an automatic seat in the House of Lords. the titles are held by his great-great-grandson, the eleventh Earl, who succeeded his father in 2008.
The family seat was Mount Juliet, near Thomastown, County Kilkenny.
Arion Thomas Piers Hamilton Butler, 11th Earl of Carrick (born 1 September 1975) is the elder son of the 10th Earl and his wife Philippa Janice Victoria Craxton. Styled as Viscount Ikerrin from birth, on 8 January 2008 he succeeded as Earl of Carrick and to the other peerages.
As of 2019, the heir presumptive was his younger brother Piers Edmund Theobald Lismalyn Butler (born 1979).