Fáilte — welcome home

Ten thousand years of Ireland,
on one map

Drag the timeline from the first hunter-gatherers of 8000 BC to the Ireland of today. Watch kingdoms rise, Vikings land, empires overreach and republics be declared — county by county. And everywhere, the unknown history: the stories the schoolbooks skipped.

Begin the journey ↓
On this day in Irish history
8000 BCAD 40011691600Today
Who holds the land

Tap any county for its story — its rulers through every age, and a fact you probably haven’t heard. Pre-modern boundaries are approximated onto today’s 32 counties so you can always find home.

Find your Ireland

Over 70 million people around the world call Ireland home. Type your surname — Murphy or Mitchell, O'Neill or Wilson, Walsh or Ward — and light up your people's homeland on the map.

205 names in the book so far, from Gaelic septs to Norman knights, Ulster Scots planters and Viking survivals — and growing. Can’t find yours? Many names have multiple spellings: try without the O’ or Mac.

Explore more

The 27 erasEvery age of Ireland, its story and its map. The 32 countiesFind home: rulers, clans and a fact you never heard. Towns & cities60 places, what their names mean, and how they began. Placename decoderWhat does Ballymun mean? Every address is a sentence in Irish. Guess the ageRead a map of old Ireland and guess when. Ten rounds. Hidden IrelandHoly wells, famine roads, ogham stones — the places the buses miss. Myths on the mapWhere the Táin, Fionn and the Children of Lir actually happened. Diaspora trailsWhere the Irish went: monks, Wild Geese, coffin ships, the Pampas. The Famine map1841 vs 1851, county by county — watch the island empty. The full timelineEvery dated event in Irish history, in one scroll. The Irish yearImbolc, Bealtaine, Lughnasa and Samhain — the night that became Halloween. Saints & feast days26 saints, their days, and where they belong. Words & blessingsSláinte, seanfhocail, and the words English took from Irish. Write your name in oghamIreland’s first alphabet, carved down a stone. Download it. Irish first namesHow to say Saoirse, Tadhg and Caoimhe — and what they mean. Clans A–Z177 names with their Irish forms, meanings and homelands. Trace your ancestorsEvery free record source, county by county, in the right order.

This is a growing book, not a finished one. I built it in Sligo, I read every correction that comes in, and a good number of these pages exist because a stranger took the trouble to tell me I had it wrong. Suggest a surname, an Irish first name, a place, an event, or a feature you would like the site to have.

Suggest something →

Diaz Xavier · Sligo · why I made this