The partition of Ireland in 1921 created a new geopolitical reality, but the mapping of that reality remained contested. Miles De Lisle Hart, building on the work of J.H. Andrews and Catherine Nash, analyzes the practical survey methods used by the Irish Boundary Commission…

[1 paragraph: state your topic, why it matters, and your thesis statement.]

[Your Research Question or Hypothesis] Author: Miles De Lisle Hart Course/Institution: [e.g., HIS 450 – University of …] Date: [Current date]

(The paper would continue with sections: Methodology, Archival Sources, Analysis, Discussion, Conclusion, and References.) Copy and fill in the brackets below.

[Restate thesis and suggest implications or further research.]

This paper examines how boundary delineations in Irish Free State cartography between 1922 and 1937 shaped regional political identity, with a focus on County Donegal and Northern Irish borderlands. Using previously unanalyzed surveyor notebooks from the Ordnance Survey of Ireland, Hart argues that cartographic ambiguity in six key border townlands directly contributed to localized disputes over maritime and upland jurisdiction. The paper concludes that interwar mapping practices had a longer half-life of political effect than previously recognized, lasting into the early 1960s.