Ireland: Mapping the Island

by Joseph Brady, Paul Ferguson

Genres: History, Maps

272 pages, Hardcover

Published December 2, 2025

Reviews

[Joe O'Donnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting and well-presented selection of maps from the last 400 years that aim to tell the story of Ireland’s development (or lack thereof) and its political and economic history. Many of the chosen maps are quite rare, and they often show the development of these early maps was closely connected to the colonial conquest of Ireland. They also show how important mapmaking was to the eventual partition of Ireland, and there is good material here on the genesis of the Ordnance Survey in Ireland. Oddly, give how “Ireland: Mapping the Island” has such a strong focus on the country’s development during the 1800s, there is very little on the effects of the Great Famine on Ireland’s approach to mapmaking. This is a decent read for anybody with a big interest in cartography.