Stories along the roads of Ireland
The story of the place you are passing, told as you pass it.
A companion for journeys through Ireland. As you drive, it watches what you are approaching, chooses the one thing worth telling about it, says it in a few sentences, and goes quiet until the next place earns a word.
Built on the public record
- National Monuments Service
- Wreck Inventory of Ireland
- National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Logainm, the Placenames Database
- OpenStreetMap
- Public-domain county histories
On the road
What it does as you drive.
Four promises, each shown with a narration from the record, as the companion would say it in the car.
It ranks everything near the road against where you are, the way you are heading and how fast, and starts a story so it ends as you reach the place.
Rathmullan, Donegal
In the town“As you come through Rathmullan in Donegal, this is where one of the most famous kidnappings in Irish history happened in 1587. In September that year a merchant ship sailed up Lough Swilly and anchored opposite Rathmullan. The man who appeared as her owner and announced a cargo of choice wines was Captain Birmingham of her Majesty's forces. He lured Red Hugh O'Donnell, then fifteen, aboard with the MacSwiney chiefs, bolted the cabin door and seized them.”
Every name, date and number comes from a source you could open yourself. When the record is thin, it says less rather than filling the silence.
Baltimore, Cork
In the town“Coming up now is the town of Baltimore, down in Cork. In 1631 this town was plundered by Algerine pirates. They entered the harbour at midnight and carried off a great number of the inhabitants. The raid showed how exposed the coast was at a time when it was ill protected from the attacks of any invading enemy. Just across the harbour, Inisshircan island holds the ruins of a small Franciscan abbey, founded by one of the O'Driscolls.”
It says "right here" only when it knows exactly, "along here" on a street, and "somewhere around here" when a story belongs to a townland rather than a spot.
Glengarriff, Cork
Somewhere around here“Somewhere close to Glengarriff, eagles once kept a hidden family alive. In 1602, with the English in the country, Lady O'Sullivan and her children lay hidden in a boolie, and no food could be found. Gorrane M'Swiney made a rope of bog-fir fibres and woke his son Phadrig, a boy of about fourteen, long before daybreak. Phadrig went down the cliff and tied straps round the necks of the young eagles, and each day the family took the eagles' prey, and so they ate until the English withdrew.”
A story, a place, a passage or an event is told at most once in a journey, and what you heard on the last drive steers the next one elsewhere.
Bantry, Cork
In the town“As you pass through Bantry, in Cork, you are in the country of Cannera, a virgin saint who made her hermitage in her own land. One night after vespers she saw all the churches of Ireland, and a tower of fire rising out of every one of them up to heaven. The fire that rose from Inis Cathaigh was the largest and the most brilliant of all. She set out at once, with no guide but the blazing tower of fire, which burned day and night until she reached it.”
nothing nearby has earned a word
Under the hood.
Three parts, each with one job, and a hard line between them.
The corpus
One record per event, place or story, with where it is and how surely.
Each carries its geography, a precision grade from the Placenames Database's own classes, its period, and the passage of source text it rests on, with the source's name, reference and retrieval date. Nothing is published until its rights are written down.
The encounter engine
Which of it matters to this person, heading this way, now.
It reads position, heading and speed, measures distance along the road rather than across it, times a story to end as the place is reached, and holds one back when something better is nearer. A story is told once per journey and remembered across them.
The narrator
The shortest accurate, engaging way to say it.
It turns the chosen passage into spoken sentences, keeps the names and dates the source gives, follows a location rule set by the precision grade, and cites what it read. A sentence that claims more than the source supports is rejected before it is stored.
A corpus for the whole island.
Growing county by county, from the national inventories and the histories written before anyone alive was born.
- 52,098
- place-linked stories and records
- 32
- counties covered
- 20
- journeys it is tested on
A few things to know.
Where the project stands today.
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The app
Passing Places is a research project. The companion is tested in a browser simulator and on drives along the Wild Atlantic Way and the roads between the cities; the research instance behind the sign-in is private.
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With or without a destination
No. It works from where you are and the way you are heading. A planned route can help it look further ahead, but nothing depends on one.
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Across Ireland
Every county has records in the corpus; the depth varies. The coast and the counties whose histories have been read are richest, and it grows as more books are brought in.
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The sources
The national inventories of monuments, wrecks and buildings, the Placenames Database, and public-domain histories and journals of each county. Each story keeps the passage it came from.
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Honest about where
Every record carries a precision grade. When a story is tied to a site, the companion says so; when it belongs only to a townland or a town, it says "somewhere around here" or speaks of the town as a place the road passes. It never claims more than the record does.
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Faithful to the record
It is faithful to its sources, which are themselves of their time. A nineteenth-century antiquarian's account is presented as that, with the book and year, not as settled fact.
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Room for silence
Because nothing nearby has earned a word. It chooses the one thing worth telling and holds back when the record is thin, rather than filling the road with noise.
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Each journey is its own
Not within a journey: a story, a place, a passage or an event is told at most once. Across journeys, what you heard last time steers the next one elsewhere.
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A note about a place
Passing Places is built in Ireland by one person, and a note about a place, a source or a mistake is always welcome; an address for that is coming with the first public release.
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