The Geography of Ireland
O'Connell St bridge
Introduction
• Western edge of Europe
• A small island: little larger than West Virginia
• Temperate climate washed by the Gulf stream
– On the same latitude as Moscow & the Aleutians
• Strategic location between North America &
Europe (US military stopover)
• Proximity to Great Britain
Geological Origins
• Pangaea split apart 200 mya
– Present-day Ireland was connected to
Newfoundland
• Animation of Ice Age Progress of Ice Age
• During Ice Age, there was a land bridge to
the British Isles
• With end of Ice Age ~11,500 ya
– Sea level rose
– Land bounced back from the heavy weight of
the glaciers
• The British Isles are detached from the
European continent:
– first Ireland then Great Britain
• Landscape would evolve from shrubs to
grasslands to forests to farm land
The Irish Giant Deer
• Main features shaped by volcanic activity,
glaciers and rain
– Erosion removed layer that elsewhere
contains coal, iron ore
– Rain also crucial to the formation of bogs
– With agriculture, reinforcement of spread of
bogs, the Burren
Bogs & peat
The Burren
• The bowl shape of Ireland
• Main geographic divisions are between
Ulster in the north and between the east
and west
• The north and west are rainier, the south
and east drier (the Pale)
• Climate has encouraged cattle raising
historically
The Four Provinces
Cultural factors
• Culturally tied into the ‘Atlantic ends’
– Human settlement out of Scotland or Denmark or
Spain
• Later the proximity to Scotland would profoundly
influence the colonization of Ulster
• The mix of uplands and lowlands in the
northeast would mean that the Catholic
population would remained mixed with the
Protestant
Environmental concerns
• Growth of urban populations
– Eutrophication
• Pollution from agricultural runoff into streams,
rivers
– Deforestation
– Disappearance of picturesque small farms
Impact of Global Warming
• May disrupt the action of the Gulf stream
• May extend growing season, dry up
peatlands
Main Sources
• CIA World Factbook
• Michael Viney, Ireland: A Smithsonian
Natural History
• The Course of Irish History, Moody &
Martin