the geography of ireland o'connell st bridge. introduction western edge of europe a small...

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