Sections 5-7

Children see a John Speed map of Dublin from 1610 and learn that it is the earliest map of Dublin city which is still in existence. Compare and contrast: Children could look at a modern map of Dublin city centre, for example a tourist map, and compare it to Speed's 1610 map. What are the main differences which they can find? Why was the city walled in the past while not nowadays? How wide did the streets seem to be in 1610?

17th century map of Dublin city: Children can see places such as Grafton Street, Mary Street and St. Stephen's Green. Children are given an activity that asks them to search the map for places.

18th century maps: A 1778 map of North County Dublin made by Taylor and Skinner is shown. This map covers the area between Swords and the city centre. Children are asked to notice that the map lists the distances between places in miles and furlongs and they are given an activity which asks them to examine the map closely for particular information.

Children learn that maps were used for a variety of purposes such as taxation.

Grand Jury Maps: An example of a 1779 grand jury map of County Clare is shown. They see that the map contained roads, rivers, lakes, large houses, hills and mountains. Children learn that Grand Juries were important local authorities in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Their role included the law and management of local taxation and services. They learn that they needed accurate maps. They learn that the map maker Henry Pelham (1749-1806) from Boston Massachusetts who made the map. His mother was from County Clare. They can click to examine the map in detail or to go to Clare County Library to see further maps.

Grand Jury Map of Carlow: On this Grand Jury map of the Carlow area, they will see how the maps shows how much arable land and how much land covered by mountain and bog there was in each of five baronies of Carlow. Children learn that as arable land was much more valuable than land that was covered in mountain or bog, and that this information was used to decide which of the five baronies would pay the highest taxes and rates.

Grand Jury map of Co. Cork: On this beautiful map children are asked to find places such as Bantry Bay and Bear Island. The scale of the map, and the term "Irish miles" are introduced. By examining the map children will see the list of symbols used and their meanings. These include the symbols for noblemen and gentlemen's seats , ruined churches and mail coach roads. Children can be asked why many of these are not contained on modern maps.

Ways of finding out about land valuation: Children see that a survey known as Griffith's Valuation was undertaken between 1848 and 1864. As this was in the period directly connected to The Great Famine in Ireland Griffith's Valuation gives us an excellent idea of conditions at the time. Children can examine a page from Griffith's Valuation of Co. Donegal which contains information such as house type and land quality of the Clonmany Parish in Inishowen. Local. The children learn that Griffiths Valuation produced a lot of data which was recorded in the surveyors' notebooks. They learn that these original notebooks are held at the Valuation Office. Local libraries often hold copies of local Griffiths ledgers and some secondary sources quote from them. The teacher can help the children study a local extract from Griffith's Valuation.

Ordnance Survey Ireland: Information on the world's first survey of a whole country using modern techniques, the O.S. Survey of Ireland carried out in Ireland in 1829-1842 is included. Children learn that maps were made of a scale of 6 inches to the mile in 1842. Children can view examples of a modern O.S. map.

Children are told that modern maps can be found in libraries, bookshops, specialist map shops as well as on-line.

On the Internet, children are referred to the Google Maps site. They can explore here to see how this site provides maps of the whole world, but at varying scales. Historic maps are also referred to, and children are told some can be found on the Internet too. For historic maps of their area children are referred to their local library. Teachers can also get the children to look in the Looking at Places map on the Ask About Ireland site as they will see examples here of source materials from various county libraries.