Joseph Brady, ‘Dublin: Mapping the City’

Maps are not only useful tools for getting us from place to place, they are huge repositories of information. It is possible to summarise a great deal on a map AND to show features in their spatial relationships. Maps give a sense of a place which cannot be obtained from text alone. This lecture will look at some moments in the history of the development of Dublin as captured in the maps of the period. While some old friends will appear, the aim of the lecture is to look at some of the less well known maps. This will include an information map for the funeral of Daniel O'Connell, a 3D view of the city in the 1860s, a look at the distribution of typhoid fever in the 1890s, plans for Dublin Bay and a look at how the Soviet Union saw Dublin in the 1970s.
Joe Brady is an urban geographer who has spent many years studying the growth and development of Dublin, much of which is published in the book series, The Making of Dublin City, published by Four Courts Press. Maps have always been an important resource in this research and the current lecture is based on a recent book, ‘Dublin: Mapping the City’, written with Paul Ferguson and published by Birlinn.
Recorded 28th Feb 2024