{"id":1845112,"date":"2025-11-03T09:43:38","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T14:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1845112"},"modified":"2025-11-03T09:45:45","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T14:45:45","slug":"ireland-mapping-the-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/11\/ireland-mapping-the-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland: Mapping the Island"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

RT\u00c9 has published an excerpt<\/a> from Ireland: Mapping the Island<\/em> by Joseph Brady and Paul Ferguson, the latest book of cartographic histories published by Birlinn (though Birlinn\u2019s website seems to be offline at the moment).<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Book<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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This book \u2013 Ireland \u2013 Mapping the Island \u2013 is a celebration of the maps of Ireland produced over the centuries. We aim to give our readers a sense of the huge variety of maps that have been drawn and of their value as documents. Quite a number of themes run through the book. We look at the importance of boundaries, what maps tell us about the development of towns and settlements, the ways in which maps have been used to create impressions of place, their role in the development of travel and how they facilitated the emergence of the ‘tourist’. We also look at how others saw us and particularly at the maps produced since the 1930s by the military powers of a number of countries. One central focus is on how we learned about the shape and internal geography of Ireland. Before the development of airplanes and spacecraft, people had to take it on trust that we correctly knew the shape of the island of Ireland. That knowledge had been gradually refined for centuries and the state of knowledge was captured in the maps produced in each era.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Ireland: Mapping the Island<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0by Joseph Brady and Paul Ferguson.\u00a0Birlinn<\/a>, 2 Oct 2025 (U.S. 2 Dec 2025), \u00a330\/$45.\u00a0Amazon<\/a>\u00a0(Canada<\/a>,\u00a0UK<\/a>),\u00a0Bookshop<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RT\u00c9 has published an excerpt from Ireland: Mapping the Island by Joseph Brady and Paul Ferguson, the latest book of cartographic histories published by Birlinn (though Birlinn\u2019s website seems to be offline at the moment).… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[{"did":"did:plc:hhxrnk4vub7jtlcl3ve26kjo","date":"2025-11-03T14:43:48+00:00","uri":"at:\/\/did:plc:hhxrnk4vub7jtlcl3ve26kjo\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3m4qaz5cyfy2x","response":"{\"uri\":\"at:\/\/did:plc:hhxrnk4vub7jtlcl3ve26kjo\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3m4qaz5cyfy2x\",\"cid\":\"bafyreigwqojr4gtwfzzuvhpigxzx7uwreros74fubb7lwuoqut7ftfugsq\",\"commit\":{\"cid\":\"bafyreicgraful6a2xph3y2h5yqwh6zsw544qdgr3l6zntbmnpx7vrayvdi\",\"rev\":\"3m4qaz5dd5q2x\"},\"validationStatus\":\"valid\"}"}],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[30,444],"class_list":["post-1845112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-antique-maps","tag-books","tag-ireland","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1785667,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/05\/mapping-the-irish-referendum-results\/","url_meta":{"origin":1845112,"position":0},"title":"Mapping the Irish Referendum Results","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"28 May 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"Even an overwhelming vote margin can be interesting to map, but I'm a bit disappointed with the maps of the Irish referendum held last Friday on whether to repeal Ireland's constitutional ban on abortion. The official Referendum Ireland website, the\u00a0Irish Times and RT\u00c9 News all use two-colour constituency map (one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/irish-abortion-referendum-1024x332.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/irish-abortion-referendum-1024x332.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/irish-abortion-referendum-1024x332.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/irish-abortion-referendum-1024x332.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2789,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/09\/the-cultural-impact-of-the-irish-ordnance-survey\/","url_meta":{"origin":1845112,"position":1},"title":"The Cultural Impact of the Irish Ordnance Survey","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"7 September 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"C\u00f3il\u00edn Parsons is the author of\u00a0The Ordnance Survey and Modern Irish Literature (Oxford University Press, June 2016; Amazon, iBooks), which links the Ordnance Survey of Ireland to the origins of literary modernism in Ireland. Writing in\u00a0The Irish Times, Parsons\u00a0makes a larger\u00a0argument about the cultural impact of the Irish survey, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Surveying"","block_context":{"text":"Surveying","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/surveying\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ordnance-survey-irish-literature","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/ordnance-survey-irish-literature-190x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2526,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/08\/an-online-map-of-every-british-rail-line-ever\/","url_meta":{"origin":1845112,"position":2},"title":"An Online Map of Every British Rail Line Ever","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"4 August 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"Rail Map Online is a web-based map showing every rail line that ever existed in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Base layers can be toggled between Google Maps, satellite, OpenStreetMap and\u00a0old Ordnance Survey maps. It doesn't distinguish between existing and removed rail lines, though that appears to be coming; it's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "History"","block_context":{"text":"History","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"rail-map-online","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/rail-map-online-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/rail-map-online-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/rail-map-online-1024x576.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/rail-map-online-1024x576.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4636,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/08\/if-maps-could-speak\/","url_meta":{"origin":1845112,"position":3},"title":"If Maps Could Speak","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"15 August 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"Richard Kirwan, a former director of Ordnance Survey Ireland, published a memoir in 2010 called If Maps Could Speak (Londubh). That memoir is now available in an ebook edition\u2014or at least it is for the Kindle; I couldn't find it in other ebook stores. [WMS]","rel":"","context":"In "Industry"","block_context":{"text":"Industry","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/industry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/if-maps-could-speak-93x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5646,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2013\/08\/a-fantasy_map-of-ireland\/","url_meta":{"origin":1845112,"position":4},"title":"A Fantasy Map of Ireland","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"5 August 2013","format":"image","excerpt":"Another data point for our consideration of what people think a fantasy map looks like, from the author of the Maptitude tumblelog: a fantasy map of Ireland, replete with, as you would expect, forests and hills. It departs from the fantasy map paradigm by using colour: red for political boundaries,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3937,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/02\/mapping-the-past\/","url_meta":{"origin":1845112,"position":5},"title":"Mapping the Past","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"15 February 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"Another book I missed at the time of its\u00a0publication: Charles Drazen's\u00a0Mapping the Past:\u00a0A Search for Five Brothers at the Edge of Empire (William Henemann, August 2016). It's a family history: Drazin's grandfather and brothers were\u00a0military surveyors from rural Ireland \"who travelled around the world as officers in the Royal Engineer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Surveying"","block_context":{"text":"Surveying","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/surveying\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/mapping-the-past-193x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1845112"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1845115,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845112\/revisions\/1845115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1845112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1845112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1845112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}