2nd Tuesday - Across (to) the generations

This morning we farewelled Doogarry House and made for the Castlebar library. I found the Castlebar town centre quite difficult to navigate, as the street layout seems to include squares and triangles, plus there’s a park area near the middle, and a one-way system. Anyway after a couple of haphazard circuits we found our way to the parking near the library, and went in.

I’d emailed in advance to let Ivor Hamrock in the library’s local history department know we were coming, and he had prepared by getting out William Bald’s maps and printing off some parts of papers about William’s work. The library has an unframed print of the same bogs map we saw at Westport House; apparently someone picked it up for twenty pounds at a car boot sale, and sold it on to the library for a tidy profit! I asked to photograph it, and Ivor carried it very gingerly over to a table – remarkably it’s still in pretty good nick for something that would have been printed circa 1812.

The library’s hard copy of Bald’s “Map of the maritime county of Mayo” is a set of 5 laminated sheets (the original was in 25 sheets), reprinted in 1989 by a company called Phoenix Maps (now defunct, I believe).

It’s not clear what inspired Phoenix to make the prints, but when I asked “what did they print them from?” we found on the bottom of a sheet the inscription “Reproduced from originals made available by the Neptune Gallery, Dublin, purveyors of fine Antique Maps and Prints”. I don’t know whether Neptune has manuscript maps or original prints, or even if they still have them as part of their collection, and there’s not enough time to visit them while I’m here, but it’s a lead I’ll follow up once home (and once this damn blog is done and dusted!).

One of the most interesting things about the Mayo maps – aside from the detailed mapping of buildings and the general quality and artistry of the maps – is that they include thousands of place-names, many of them not recorded in the Ordnance Survey a couple of decades later. Apparently the Bald maps are consulted quite a lot by people doing genealogical research, when they know the name of the place their ancestors lived but the place-name has changed or fallen out of usage. Finding the place on an old map allows them to figure out the modern name for the locale or parish, which helps in seeking records or confirming family linkages.

This photo is of a very small part - you can view the entire map here: http://www.mayolibrary.ie/maptool/#M10C-9.42604!53.90792Z9F1* 

Just before we left, Ivor told me about another of William’s local works that he’d stumbled across while researching Lord Lucan, the local landowner: in the middle of the town, just opposite the library there’s a park area known locally as The Mall, bordered by stone bollards linked by chains. This fence – and Ivor assured me it’s this same fence that’s there today – was erected by William in the 1820s, in response to Lord Lucan telling him to “do something about that swamp”!

Felt a bit sad leaving Castlebar – I could easily have spent quite a few more days poking around the town and nearby areas, and getting a better feel for the place. But it was time to go to Dublin – via Galway to meet retired forensic and litigation engineer Paul Duffy.

Paul is mentioned on the Burntisland website as having given a lecture about Bald’s map of Mayo in 2007. I decided a couple of days back that I should try to get in touch with him. I’m so glad I did! It turns out he’s done much more than given a lecture; he’s actually been interested in William Bald’s work for around 30 years! Paul worked in roading and water for the Galway County Council, and kept coming across William’s name in documents relating to both. As he dug more, he developed a very strong sense of William’s work ethic, meticulous attention to detail, and unwillingness to modify his designs or cost estimates in order to kowtow to patrons. Paul said several times that he hopes we realise what an illustrious ancestor we have.

Once we left Paul's place we hit the road for Dublin - a long, featureless drive straight across the middle of the island, motorway all the way. (Ireland was described to me as being like a saucer - flat in the middle with all its hills/mountains generally round the perimeter - easy drive across the middle, but boring.)

Tonight in Dublin we had the pleasure of dinner with Leanor, another descendant of William Bald, and her husband Ronnie. Leanor’s great-grandmother was William’s daughter Margaret, by his second wife Matilda - by my calculation, that makes us half- third-cousins once removed.

                   William

       (Anne)  /     \ (Matilda)

                    /       \

            Charles  Margaret

                 /              \

          Francis          Oscar

              /                       \

      Vincent                 Phyllis

           /                               \

Peter/Brag/Jen             Leanor

       /

Andrea etc

It was really neat to meet Leanor and Ronnie, and they were great company – thank you again for the dinner, and the lift home.

“Home” for the night is St Aiden’s Guest House, a red brick Victorian terrace in a leafy area on Dublin’s south side – very nice.