ReadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2025

Ireland: Mapping the Island

Paul Ferguson author Joseph Brady author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Birlinn General

Published:2nd Oct '25

Should be back in stock very soon

Ireland: Mapping the Island cover

Hodges Figgis Book of the Year for 2025

Shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards History Book of the Year

Maps allow us to see how the world is organised spatially and show us relationships which cannot be understood from simply reading a text. This magnificent book highlights a vast selection of maps that range across the centuries and cover every part of the island, shedding light on the history and development of Ireland.

The themes are many and varied, from conquest and colonisation, the management of the landscape, natural resources, meeting the needs of tourists, transport, the growth of urban centres as well as exploring how others saw Ireland, and much more besides.  Carefully selected by two noted map experts, this highly visual book tells the story of Ireland in a unique and stimulating way.

'There's no doubting the scholarly rigour of this production, which reflects maps' many distinctive styles and strategies... an invite to the imagination from long before Google Maps'

* Irish Times *

'Both scholarly and accessible at the same time . . . the best general book dealing with Irish maps of the period covered that I've seen. It's a handsome hardback production'

* EastWest Mapping *

'A celebration of the maps of Ireland produced over the centuries'

* RTE *

'These days we take maps, and the knowledge of the real world that they display, very much for granted. This was always the case as this marvellous compendium of Ireland’s history as evidenced in cartography reveals... It is the... details on all the maps in this book that make its pages such a delight'

* Irish Catholic *

'Magnificent'

* Books Ireland *

'This is a truly magnificent tome, a full bells-and-whistles production that’s beautifully put together. It would make a superb gift for the keen geography fan, the history buff, in fact anyone at all who has a curious mind and an interest in our fair land'

* Connaught Telegraph *

'A breathtaking book'

* Meath Chronic

  • Short-listed for An Post Irish Book Awards History Book of the Year 2025

ISBN: 9781780279640

Dimensions: 250mm x 246mm x 35mm

Weight: 1713g

272 pages