Map Man

Barry Dalby [multiprev] the cartographer [EastWest Mapping] lives close enough that, 20+years ago, I helped barrow the concrete for his kitchen extension. That's what neighbours do. In 2013, he published a 1:25,000 scale rambler's map was definitionally (50/25)2 = 4x and possibly10x more informative that the equivalent 1:50,000 map put out by the salarymen at OSI Ordnance Survey Ireland. Back then, at the birth of The Blob, that map was the handiest, handsomest, most convenient data-source for "Blackstairs, Mount Leinster & The Barrow Valley". Part of Dalby's job was seeing that his creation was stocked in local shops. I made and framed a publicity poster and screwed it to the side of one of our sheds [still there, as R]; tempting passing hill-walkers to buy their own copy. Periodically, I'd go visit EastWest Centraal and purchase a bunch of Blackstairs maps, knowing I'd be giving them away to visitors (and passing strangers!). Barry generously cut me a wholesale deal. Which, fair…