How to Conduct your Research

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All research answers a question and should contribute to our understanding of the character of places. My question is:
'What are, and what were, the shaping forces of the district which stretches from the townland of Templeogue, south by Tallaght, east along the military road, west by the Liffey valley through the Ballinascorney gap and back by the valley of the Dodder to where we began?' You notice how I have used many names to describe the journey we are about to take - names of both human constructs such as towns and roads and physical things such as rivers. Our project is to examine, in a general way, the connections between these things both now and in history. I don't expect you to know all these places but you will be equally familiar with the geography of places you have travelled, often unwillingly, with your parents on Sunday trips of yesterday. We all have much geography locked inside us and the role of education is to tap all these resources.

Construct a Bibliography

Before beginning any project one should be aware of existing work. In other words, you should construct and consult a bibliography. Sadly, there are no specific geography texts written about the area we are going to look at so, one has to check in the local library for more general works written about Dublin, or the mountains, or the water supply. Because of the recent dramatic upsurge in publications that have more a history than geography focus, we are bound to get material which will inform us about the area. At the conclusion of the article I will list some of the more relevant publications. Many of the topics I refer to could be the subject matter of individual research but, by bringing them together, we can see what is one of the traditional strengths of geography.

Maps

Geographers have always been associated with maps, not as their creators (which is the role of another set of specialists, cartographers), but as interpeters. For this trip you should be familiar with the earliest maps of the district which were compiled just before the Great Famine and are commonly called the first edition of the six inch to the mile maps. These have been revised and updated and an examination of the editions can establish how places change through time, and as a result of human activity. Up until recently the standard map, used by traveller and geographer alike, was the 1/2 inch to the mile sheet. For mapping purposes, Ireland is divided into a set of grid squares, each referred to by a letter. Places can be located using both the grid letter followed by the easting and southing co-ordinates. These maps show altitude (using contours and shading), the road system and a selection of settlement names and archaeological and historical sites. More recently, these maps have been superceded by more detailed maps such as those at a scale of 1:50,000.
This field exercise could be done in conjunction with the question on map interpretation and photograph analysis. Every school should have a detailed reference section for their hinterlands which includes maps.

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