Ravensdale Stones

I went tramping through the woods in Ravensdale Park lately. The park is near Jonesborough but just over the border in County Louth. I wanted to see the standing stone that was marked on my Ordnance Survey map. But what I found was a whole gang of stones, arranged in a rough circle.




You might think I'd be delighted to have found more than I had bargained for, but actually this was something rather less. A single ancient standing stone has a gravitas that these stones lacked. My main problem is that I doubt their vintage. Some of Ireland's standing stones have been in place for millennium — that is a vital part of their power. But these stones did not have that air about them. I think it was because the ring was of too small a diametre. The stones' placement lacked the scale and drama of authentic, ancient, stone rings. These have too strong a niff of the ornamental about them.

If any reader knows anything about the stone ring in Ravensdale Park then I would be very glad of the information.

Giro d'Italia

This year the annual Giro d'Italia bicycle race will open with stages in Northern Ireland. The Grande Partenza or ‘Big Start’ of the will take place over three days from 9 - 11 May 2014. It involves routes in Belfast, around the coast and, finally, a dash from Armagh to Dublin.

 

Maps of the routes have been released. The second day's is a 218km round trip; Belfast to Antrim, Ballymena, Bushmills then taking in the Causeway Coastal Route from Cushendall to Larne onto Whitehead and Carrickfergus before returning to Belfast.

An aspect of the map I like is the elevation guide. I have thrown it on its side to suit the format of this blog. You can see these maps and the others at this link.

War on Wind Farms

The writer and occasional mapmaker Denis Wood might be the one who put it best. He said; "The truth is, maps are weapons." Here's an example. The Belfast Telegraph recently used cartography to make an attack on wind power projects in Northern Ireland. This is the map they published under the heading; "Wind farms: Map reveals how they've swarmed across Northern Ireland in 13 years".



The report discusses wind power projects using the language of disease and invasion, seeking a quick emotional response from the reader; "relentless spread," "blight." It highlights one politician's shrill description of wind farms as "environmental rape." No counter augment is admitted.

The biggest impact is made by the map. Indeed, the story is built on the map. The first impression (and, sadly, the first impression is all many readers will be left with) is indeed of a swarm. There are hundreds of wind farms! There seem to be so many wind farms that at least one must be visible from anywhere. So many wind farms that you'd be able to see dozens of them from any elevated site. They seem to be more wind farms than villages and towns, more wind farms than there are hills to put them on.

 Hang on ...

Those aren't wind farms.

This map actually charts domestic wind turbines, single rotors that are bolted to people's garages or stand in their gardens. I am temped to say that the map is lying but it isn't really, but the information has been misrepresented in order to mislead. You can find the original map on the Department of Environment website. Compare the two and you can see how important contextual information has be erased on the newspaper's version. The biggest absence being the title; "Planning Applications for Single Wind Turbines, April 2002 - October 2013."

This example can be taken as a warning about the power of maps. Stop, read and think about the article and most of us could work out that we were being fooled. But, by translating its bias into a visual image this article has found a way to draw quick, unconsidered agreement. We take in the message in an instant, are disgusted with wind farms, then turn the page. A map can communicate in a powerful and immediate way that is open to abuse. It has been abused here.

Also on the Department of Environment website is the actual wind farm map. This map includes applications that were refused, withdrawn or for which a decision is still pending.



Not so much a swarm really, you could call it a sprinkle.

Mapping Alternative Ulster

Writing this blog has made me into a keen observer of mapping projects in Ulster. I seek them out whether they are produced by individual artists or groups. I am interested regardless of whatever the map's mission happens to be (a map always has a mission). There is a lot of fascinating work being done by map-makers here. Some of it is beautiful, some of it is important, some of it is both.

Exhibition website

Inside the Ulster Museum

I am please to announce that the Ulster Museum, Belfast, has entrusted me with an exhibition space for next summer. The show I am curating will be called Mapping Alternative Ulster. This show will bring together the work of geographers, mapmakers and urban planners, all of whom interpret the land in different ways. Mapping Alternative Ulster will re-think our surroundings and its representation on maps. Some of the maps going into the show have already featured in this blog, John Carson's Friend Map for example. Others have not.

Watch this space for more information has the exhibition approaches.

Right now I am seeking funding for aspects of the show. Thank you to the Arts Council of Northern Ireland who have already given me assistance.

The exhibition website is www.mappingalternativeulster.net

Map of Hannahstown

Black Mountain overlooks many parts of Belfast. And from many parts of Belfast you can see a dip in the western end of Black Mountain. This ruffled edge is the location of a quarry. Down the slope from there, out of sight, is Hannahstown. I read that the village began in the early 19th century when a landowner called John Hamill gave an acre over for use a cemetery. His wife's name was Hannah. Their own daughter would sadly become one of the first to be buried in the new graveyard. Her name was Hannah too.

The cemetery was soon joined by a school, then a chapel, then a village.

The Hannahstown Heritage and Cultural Society is a newly formed group who, with funding from Belfast City Council, decided to make an historical map of the area. The result is beautiful hand drawn piece of cartography.

Overview

Detail 1

Detail 2

The map has an twisting perspective, wrapping Hannahstown around the map reader. This is just a good a way to represent a landscape as any other. Wherever you look you can see a horizon, just like reality. This map also looks back in time. Members of the society pooled their knowledge and packed the map with local history. It is full of information; folk history, old place-names, snippets of material culture, flora and fauna. Eamonn Mc Croy is the illustrator. He says the map "contains only a subset of the many topic discussed during a lively series of very enjoyable evenings."

Detail 3

Detail 4

The map is displayed in Hannahstown Community Centre and there are plans to do a print run of it. I am also hoping to include A Map of Hannahstown in the Mapping Alternative Ulster exhibition in the Ulster Museum next year. More on that soon.

Blobs in Antrim

I had this map pressed into my hand outside a design fair in London lately. It's a flier for a craft magazine called Hole and Corner. I like the colour scheme, the few dashes of orange set it off well. On the map Britain and Ireland are marked up with images of cultural produce, sports and famous art from various regions.





The top half of Ireland is filled mainly with two GAA players. That makes sense, but what are those mysterious blobs occupying Country Antrim? Painters' pallets? Alien invaders? This is a serious question, any ideas?

The Detail on Schools

The Detail is a news website for Northern Ireland. Its staff do not just write traditional journalism. They also run a kind of story that may well become more common as we entre the era of 'big data'. They make news by analysing and collating statistical information. Recently The Detail has looked at rates of repossession, studied cancer prevalence by postcode and compared emergency service response times across Northern Ireland. Often The Detail displays its findings using online maps. This is the case with the report, "How our school leavers fare - by school and by postcode". Below I have posted the two screenshots that cover Limavady.

On this map every secondary school in Northern Ireland is described by a selection of stats. These include the percentage of students who are entitled to school meals (a rough indicator of economic well-being) and the percentage who go onto further education.





We have come to expect a religious divide in Northern Ireland's education system. Towns often have a Catholic School and a Protestant one. Sure enough, many of Northern Ireland's small-to-medium sized towns have two secondary schools. However, zoom it and a different divide is revealed. Class or relative wealth seems just as important a story. Schools with high rates of free school meals send low numbers of students to university. Use their map to roam town to town and this correlation holds true, regardless of the school's place on the religious spectrum.