Tullamore Library held a talk on Tuesday 10th May, by Richard Kirwan, former Director of Ordnance Survey Ireland. If Maps Could Speak was published in 2010 and is an engaging combination of memoir, history and stories about people and places during the long history of Ordnance Survey in Ireland.
In the presentation, Richard took the audience behind the scenes into the minds and work of the early map-makers with accounts of their inventions, adventures, endurance and heroism in pre-Famine Ireland.
There was a high level of interest from the audience who asked a number questions.
Richard spent most of his career working in Ordnance Survey Ireland, where he was Director from 1996 until retiring in 2006. He was responsible for the modernistion of Ordnance Survey and the remapping of the entire country which was completed in 2005. He was also responsible for computerising the historic maps of Ireland and publishing them on the web.