The Irish Times

It's all in the maps - every historic site, every church, every school, every gravel pit, every road, every spring, every parish pump and everything else of note. From the time they started out way back in 1837, the map-makers of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland (OSI) didn't miss a thing. The old six-inch maps (that's six inches to the mile) were etched in reverse onto copper plate, printed in "grayscale" and then hand-coloured to highlight different features. And now they have all been seamlessly joined together by digital technology in a project of international significance.