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OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ

Irish ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช #geoweirdness, secrets strange and bold,
across the isle, an odd tale to be told.
Cork to Donegal,
we'll unveil it all -
in this thread, the story will unfold.

1/

15 comments
OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ

2. First of all, some clarification on terms: Ireland is an island in the north Atlantic.

The island is divided between the country Ireland ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช (ร‰ire in Irish, and
sometimes referred to as the "Republic of Ireland" or simply "the Republic") and Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of

#geoweirdness

OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ

3. Ireland ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช is part of the EU ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ, and the land border and freedom of movement with the UK ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง proved to be a tricky point to resolve in Brexit negotiations.

The "border" itself is 499km long with about 300 crossings, often entirely unmarked.

belfastlive.co.uk/news/belfast

#geoweirdness

OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ

4. One famous example of border oddness is "the Drummully Polyp", an Irish ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช pene-exclave.

The only road access is via Northern Ireland ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง.

openstreetmap.org/?mlat=54.157

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drummull

#geoweirdness

OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ

5. Like the border itself, the UK ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง and Ireland ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช share a long, complicated and intertwined history.

Irish citizens have permanent right to live and work in the UK.
Meanwhile people born in Northern Ireland are also entitled to Irish citizenship.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_na

#geoweirdness

OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ

6. Ireland ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช and the UK ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง do however disagree on some points.

Ireland does not recognise the UK's claim to Rockall, an uninhabited tiny island in the North Atlantic.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockall

#geoweirdness

BTW - there was some recent Rockall news: theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/j

(and yes, we do have an alert set for Rockall news. Obvs)

OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ

8. As alluded to earlier, in Ireland ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช two languages has official status: Irish and English.

While English is more widely used generally, several areas are designated as "Gaeltacht" where special measures are taken to try to reinforce Irish.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaeltach

#geoweirdness

OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ

9. Ireland ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช was the last country in Europe to introduce a national postal code system. Called "Eircodes", national postcodes where introduced only in 2014 and are still not widely used.

Sadly Eircodes are not open data, which means using them at scale (for example for geocoding) requires a license and paying a licensing fee ๐Ÿ˜ฌ

finder.eircode.ie

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_a

#geoweirdness #postcodes

OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ

10. The island of Ireland was historically divided into about 61,000 "townlands", a small geographical division of land of Gaelic origin.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Townland

Mapping them has been a very long-running project inthe OpenStreetMap Ireland community

wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Ir

#geoweirdness

OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ

11. Indeed, the OpenStreetMap community in Ireland ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช is very active: openstreetmap.ie

They were one of the very first communities we interviewed in our blog series where we speak with OSM communities around the world:
blog.opencagedata.com/post/995

Limerick was the site of the second ever State of the Map OSM conference, all the way back in 2008 2008.stateofthemap.org (our very own @freyfogle was one of the speakers)

#geoweirdness #openstreetmap

11. Indeed, the OpenStreetMap community in Ireland ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช is very active: openstreetmap.ie

They were one of the very first communities we interviewed in our blog series where we speak with OSM communities around the world:
blog.opencagedata.com/post/995

OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ replied to OpenCage

12. Wrapping things up, you may be surprised to learn of New Ireland, a province of Papua New Guinea ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฌ on the other side of the world from Ireland ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Irel

New Ireland was a correct answer in the April 2023 #fridaygeotrivia competition where we asked about states/provinces named after countries they are not part of:
blog.opencagedata.com/post/geo

#geoweirdness

OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ replied to OpenCage

13. That's it for our look at ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช Ireland's #geoweirdness.

Thanks for reading and boosting. What did we overlook?

We have more threads about specific countries, border disputes, geocoding, etc on our blog.

Enjoy: blog.opencagedata.com/geothrea

OpenCage ๐Ÿ‘‰๐ŸŒ replied to OpenCage

14. Final bonus toot - Ireland ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช of course has a rich musical tradition, and has gifted the world with some of the best songs about geocoding.

We close with U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name"

youtube.com/watch?v=GzZWSrr5wF

#geoweirdness #geocoding

JJ Celery

@opencage "Ireland and the UK do however disagree on some points" must be the understatement of the century ๐Ÿฟ

HistoPol (#HP)

@opencage

So, in fact, there isn't really a border that could be policed. Statistically, people can cross every 1.66 kilometers.

Just like the Hadrian's Wall of old in Britain, there is one country with the remnants of an archaic border...

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