I sent the below message in to Facebook today and it is only as I read through the replies that I realise people don't actually think about these maps.

I was asked a question about the relevant size of them - it is 1:50,000

On Friday, the day before Janet arrived in this area, I dropped dogs with June my wonderful dog minder and then I drove to Dublin because I figured I needed to have Ordinance Survey maps AND I definitely figured I HAD to have the type of torch that John Tierney had shown me the day I went out to Killermogh graveyard with his group.

Now, most of you probably don't know about Ordnance survey maps or if you do come here, then you figure the cost of these maps is too expensive. I think they're costing about 8.50 or 9 Euro per map. I crossed me fingers and hoped to God I'd live for another month that day and bought 3 new maps. The thing is, I had copies of all the OS maps for Laois BUT over the years, opening and closing them in the car does them no good - I know, I could buy the plasticky kind of maps for more money.

Neither here nor there. These maps would actually be extremely important for you if you are researching an area in Ireland. You have to buy 3+ maps for any county BUT these maps show you the locations of all burial grounds, graveyards and churches in a county. They also show you the location of Castles and architectural pieces like that.

My advice to you, if you come to Ireland to research and area and if you are in Dublin for a day, then there is a camping shop just off Grafton street - go in there, go upstairs and the staff are wonderful and will help you find the map or maps that you need.

If you intend looking at gravestones and if you have about 70 Euro to spare, then you need to buy a torch - a magic torch, this is not an ordinary torch but with this torch you can read letters on gravestones that you would not be able to read without the torch.

I've seen the difference, there is no comparison.

I went to buy a P7 torch and I actually wanted a small one but they had no P7's and I ended up buying a P14.5 (I think).....the light from this is like 350 times the light from the moon and over our days of travelling, Janet and I, we had 3 Maher gravestones in (was it Kilmocar?) and if I had not that torch we would never have been able to read them.