Irish history online.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: UP FRONT - Brief article

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The new treasure of the Emerald Isle is not so new ... the Irish government has launched the "world's first large-scale historical mapping of an entire country" and is offering this treasure trove of maps online at www.irishhistoricmaps.ie.

The Irish government's website is an online map archive detailing every town, street, and farm located in the country over the past two centuries. According to the Boston Globe, Internet users can access visual images of more than 30,000 maps of Irish localities dating to 1824 for five Euros a day (about $6.40 U.S.).

Comprising the vast archives of the government and Irish universities, the database allows users to zoom in on maps or search via key words. The database also offers detailed information about schools, cemeteries, businesses, factories, individual plots of land, and even trees and bushes.

Irish officials said the online map project began in 2003 after government officials noticed that the maps were in bad shape...