Green’s Dictionary of Slang

an Irish person; thus Barkshire, Ireland.

a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 68: I’ll crack you a whid about her nibs, you’ll gig at. Vell then she’s a rank bark.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict. n.p.: Bark or Bark-islander an Irishman.
1869		N&Q Ser. 4 III 406: In Lancashire an Irishman is vulgarly called a bark [F&H].
1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 191: Mike when asked by his countrymen why he called Fairbanks a ‘Bark,’ i.e., an Irishman, said, ‘If I had not put the “Bark” on him he would have put it on me, so I had the first pull.’.
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 413: When I was about fourteen I slung my ’ook and joined some travelling Barks. [Ibid.] 434: It ain’t no manner o’ use goin’ to the hexpense of bringin’ a fust-class cracksman hall the way from Start to Barkshire.
1893		P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 58: You must know that my old pot was a bark.