Description of impact
The heart of the research is my book The Rule of the Land: Walking Ireland’s Border (Faber & Faber 2017, pp.312), a non-fiction work illustrated by my own maps. It has inspired media work, public appearances and gallery exhibitions. The research transforms Ireland’s border from an abstraction into a living place, with its own character and history. It has found a prominent place in international media discussions around Brexit, nationalism and landscape. I have developed a strong profile on international radio and television, and the book has been abridged by BBC Radio 4. Press coverage has included The Guardian, Der Spiegel, and The New York Times. Reviews from journalists and the public indicate the book can affect a change of mind-set in readers. I curate an exhibition of maps from my book along with those of other independent map-makers that has received extensive press coverage. Audiences testimonials reveal the transformative effect of the work.Who is affected
The end-users and stakeholders are the gallery-goers and large international audiences of non-academic readers, listeners and TV viewers from the UK, Ireland and beyond. Other stakeholders are the communities of the borderland, policy makers and media professionals concerned with the impact of Brexit on the ground.Narrative
OBJECTIVESAn objective of The Rule of the Land was to transform the border in the public consciousness, taking it from a conceptual line on a map to a living place with its own history, nuances and possibilities. This objective was given further urgency as the UK voted to leave the European Union, raising questions about the future of Ireland’s border. The Rule of the Land is, in part, about reading the power dynamics in a landscape so is particularly apposite in the current political climate. Extensive research underpins the book: literary, political, geographical and historical. Online bookseller Amazon have categorised The Rule of the Land as ‘Irish History’ as well as ‘Ireland: Travel’ (it was number 1 bestseller in these categories as well as ‘walking’ for most of March 2017 and has frequently been in their top twenties since then).
The maps illustrating The Rule of the Land emerged from a dissatisfaction with how Northern Ireland is represented in maps. One topic, the distribution of Protestant and Catholics, is charted so often that it seems to suggest this is the normal way to look at our landscape and neighbours. Furthermore, designers often chart our population and voting patterns with the orange and green cliché, reinforcing stereotypes. I have been making and exhibiting alternative maps since 2008, supported in part by an £10,000 award from the Centre for Cross-Border Studies. This brought me into contact with other independent map-makers. I gathered the work of fourteen together for an exhibition called ‘Mapping Alternative Ulster’. Most of the works had never been seen in a gallery context before. The map-makers included urban planners charting Belfast, local historians detailing townlands in Fermanagh, older people recording the fading place names of Donegal, an artist collecting nicknames for parts of Derry/Londonderry and a community activist mapping a village in south Down. All the maps challenge sectarian divisions but there is more to the show: I wished to reveal multiple ways of seeing Ulster’s landscape in order to promote fresh thinking about our relationship to it. The show is subtitled Rethinking the Land. All the maps chart realities in the lived environment or draw attention to local ways of seeing that are overlooked in official maps. ‘Mapping Alternative Ulster’ has run three times in different Northern Ireland venues. Feedback indicates it succeeded in its aim to transform the way audiences think about Ulster and the border region.
FINDINGS/CONCLUSIONS
The Rule of the Land appeared just as a new curiosity about Ireland’s border sprung up internationally, gaining the book an extensive platform across international media. In Ireland and the UK, the way the book has been embraced suggested there was a hunger for a deeper – and perhaps more optimistic – consideration of Ireland’s border than was previously available.
Several new creative propositions emerged in The Rule of the Land. One was simply that the border should be looked at as a place, rather than an abstraction, a line or a tactical problem. The book also argues that Ireland’s border did not just divide Ireland into two parts but three: the north, the south and the borderland. I used the term ‘borderlander’ for people living along the line, and this term was widely discussed and found a place in the lexicon of journalists and commenters.
The exhibition ‘Mapping Alternative Ulster’ was supported by two awards from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, totalling £6,500. It first ran in the Ulster Museum, May—June 2014 (The museum as a whole received about 1500 visitors per day during the run). This led to invites to the Alley Arts Centre Strabane, June 2015 (receiving 40 visitors per day) and the Marketplace Gallery Armagh, December 2016—January 2017 (receiving approximately 750 people over the run). Launches, lectures and other events associated with the exhibition were also well attended. These included contributions from QUB staff member Keith Lilley, urban planners and artists. An artist called Seamus Duncan had work in the show. He and one of this maps was featured in BBC Ulster television’s ‘Walk the Line’ (29 June 2015) as a direct result of being showcased in ‘Mapping Alternative Ulster’. One of my own maps in the show formed the basis of a half-hour BBC Radio 4 commissioned documentary called ‘Charting the Border’ (30 June 2014). I wrote and presented the programme. A section was broadcast again on Radio 4’s ‘Pick of the Week’.
Impact status | Ongoing |
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Impact date | 30 Jun 2014 |
Category of impact | Cultural Impact, Societial Impact, Other Impact |
Impact level | Engagement |
Related content
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Press / Media
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Review of The Rule of the Land, 'Irish Examiner'
Press/Media: Other
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Interview, BBC Radio Ulster, 'Arts Extra': Fiction Versus Non-Fiction
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Panel discussion, BBC Radio 3, 'Free Thinking'
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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Discussion, BBC Radio Ulster, 'Blas' - discussion of Mapping Alternative Ulster
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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Interview, Irish News, 'Borderline obsession: Garrett Carr on his new book about trekking the Irish border'
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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New York Times. On Ireland’s Border: ‘That Sad Old Game’
Press/Media: Research
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Panel discussion, BBC Radio 4, 'Start the Week'
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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Interview, Belfast Telegraph, 'Mapping Ulster'
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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Review of The Rule of the Land, 'TLS (Times Literary Supplement)'
Press/Media: Other
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Interview, 'On the Brexit Border' Letras Libres, Spanish news magazine
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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TV interview and feature, Babel SVT (Swedish TV) 'Garrett Carr, mapping and writing the border'
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Interview, Dublin City FM
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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Interview, BBC World Service, 'Weekend Programme'
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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Interview, TV5 Monde, Le Brexit aura-t-il lieu?
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Interview, Daily Telegraph, 'Tales from the Irish border: Fears Brexit could hit economy and security ahead of election'
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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Review of The Rule of the Land, 'Sunday Times'
Press/Media: Other
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Review of The Rule of the Land, 'Irish Times'
Press/Media: Other
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Art Forum: the Yellow Manifesto
Press/Media: Other
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Interview, NPR Radio, USA, 'Colin McEnroe Show'
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Interview, Today FM interview about Ireland's border
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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Review of The Rule of the Land, 'Books Ireland'
Press/Media: Other
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Interview, 'The Planner: journal of the Royal Town Planning Institute'
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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Interview, 'Newstalk with Pat Kenny'
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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Review of The Rule of the Land, 'Sunday Independent'
Press/Media: Other
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Interview, Culture NI
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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Review of The Map of Connections, Art Monthly, 'Brinkmanship'
Press/Media: Research
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Interview for Alan Meban podcast
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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Interview Der Spiegel, 'View from Belfast'
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Interview, RTE Radio 1, 'Inside Culture'
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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Review of The Rule of the Land, 'Literary Review'
Press/Media: Other
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Article, Irish Independent, 'Brexit and the Lost Border'
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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TV Interview, BBC Worldwide
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Interview, Irish Times, 'A Vernacular Map of the Border'
Press/Media: Research
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Interview, London Review of Books, 'Diary: The Irish Border'
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Review of The Rule of the Land by Colm Tóibín 'the Guardian'
Press/Media: Other
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Interview, BBC World Service, 'Business Daily'
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Interview, On Ireland's Border: 'Contemporary Politics' a University College Cork podcast
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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Review of The Rule of the Land, 'Countryfile Magazine'
Press/Media: Other
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Interview, BBC World Service, 'World Have Your Say'
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Review of The Rule of the Land, 'The Daily Telegraph'
Press/Media: Other
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Interview, 'Border Crime: Royal Irish Academy podcast'
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
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Interview, BBC Radio 4, 'Today Programme'
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Activities
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Border Maps: Exhibition
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in Festival/Exhibition
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Territorialisation of Crime fiction
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference
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Public Reading in Sligo Library
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Plenary, Maynooth University, 'Sovereignty and the Ache'
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited or keynote talk at national or international conference
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Mapping Heritage Sites
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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International Assocation for Studies in Irish Literature (IASIL) Conferene 2013: Urban Cultures
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference
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Borderlands
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference
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Public event, Fivemiletown: 'William Carleton Society Summer School: Border: Past, Present, Future'
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Edinburgh International Book Festival
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in Festival/Exhibition
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Border Stones
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Mapping Alternative Ulster: Shared Space?
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Mapping Alternative Ulster: life-size map with C.R.O.W. Walks
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in workshop, seminar, course
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The George Mitchell Institute, spring festival of conflict transformation, roundtable event
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in Festival/Exhibition
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Public event, 'International Literature Festival Dublin', event with Patrick McCabe and Martina Devlin
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Exhibiting the Yellow Manifesto
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in Festival/Exhibition
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Mapping Alternative Ulster - Exhibition of Cartography
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in Festival/Exhibition
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Belfast Book Festival
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in Festival/Exhibition
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Aye Write! Festival
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in Festival/Exhibition
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Mapping Alternative Ulster: Looking Behind the Map
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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IAS Vulnerability Symposium: Reintroducing the Irish border: conflict, creativity and customs posts
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Public event, 'Borris House Festival of Writing and Ideas', guest speaker with Michael Harding
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Carnegie Mellon University
Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting an external academic institution
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Public event, Galway, 'Power of Borders'
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Public Lecture: Walking In Ireland
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Public event, 'Borris House Festival of Writing and Ideas', guest speaker with Colm Tóibín and Fintan O'Toole
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Public event, Enniskillen, 'Happy Days Festival: Edge of Europe'
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Discussion, Naughton Bookclub
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Mapping Alternative Ulster - Exhibition of Cartography
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in Festival/Exhibition
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Mapping Alternative Ulster
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Public event, Dublin, 'Dalkey Book Festival, Borders Event'
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Listening to the City
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Mapping Alternative Ulster: Exhibition Tour
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Royal Ulster Academy Exhibition
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in Festival/Exhibition
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Discussion, Blackbird Bookclub
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Oral presentation
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IBIS-Ulster Museum Conference: Art of the Troubles
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference
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Hosting staff and students from Carnegie Mellon University: border tour
Activity: Other activity types › Hosting a delegation or group
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Conflicting Views: Visual Culture, Conflict and Northern Ireland
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference
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Hosting staff and students from Carnegie Mellon University
Activity: Other activity types › Hosting a delegation or group
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Research output
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Map of Watchful Architecture
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Fictional Ulster: A map of places created by writers
Research output: Non-textual form › Digital or Visual Products
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Rethinking the Land: An Exhibition of Ulster Maps
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Remapping the Irish Border
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed)
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The Rule of the Land: Walking Ireland's Border
Research output: Book/Report › Book
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The Irony Curtain: A short history of Ireland's border
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Defending the Irish Border: The Map of Watchful Architecture
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Frontier Dreams
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
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The Yellow Manifesto: (A Border Manifesto)
Research output: Non-textual form › Exhibition
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Land and Power: Making a New Map of Ireland's Border
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Notes from an author: Garrett Carr
Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
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The Map of Connections 3.1: Unofficial and previously unmapped Irish border crossings
Research output: Non-textual form › Digital or Visual Products
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Infinite Links
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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I’ve walked the Irish border – Brexiters are trampling on fragile territory
Research output: Other contribution
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Il Confine Non Esiste Piu. Marie Claire Italia
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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Reading the Land: A live performance
Research output: Non-textual form › Performance
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Top 10 spring walks in the UK, the Guardian
Research output: Other contribution
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No Way Back: Foreword for a photography catalogue
Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Featured article
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The lake that will divide Britain from Europe, Economist 1843
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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Hard Border by Darach MacDonald review: fine blend of history and memoir: Brexit is put in context of the historical issues of the Border
Research output: Other contribution
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The Map of Watchful Architecture 2.0: Defensive forms along Ireland's border
Research output: Non-textual form › Digital or Visual Products
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An Archaeology of Ireland's Border
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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Ireland's border country: walking the line and in love with the landscape
Research output: Other contribution
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How the Irish border was made and maintained, New Statesman
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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Walking the border, Northern Ireland
Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
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Points that Make a Line: Mapping Ireland’s Border
Research output: Other contribution
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Brexitland, Irish Independent
Research output: Other contribution
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Finding the Frontier
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review