[OSM-talk-ie] Townlands and N.I

[Cormac O Murchú]

This is unfinished business for us really. 

 

In 1921 the whole of Ireland was built like.

 

Townlands > grouped into

Electoral Divisions  > grouped into

Rural Districts or Urban Districts >  > grouped into

Counties.

 

In 2016 the south of Ireland is built like. 

 

Townlands > grouped into

Electoral Divisions  > grouped into

Municipal Districts  > grouped into

Counties.

 

And that latter structure corresponds to admin levels 10 to 7 inclusive. 

 

In NI a key change occurred immediately after partition.  

 

Electoral Divisions  were deliberately deprecated in favour of Wards. A Ward
is _a different grouping system for whole townlands_ and the creation of
these Wards was a political decision made in 1923. 

 

Wards are the admin_level=9 building block in NI.  > grouped into 

 

District Electoral Areas are the admin_level=8 building block in NI. >
grouped into

 

District Councils like “Fermanagh and Omagh District Council” are the
admin_level=7 building block. There are 11 of these councils across the 6
counties. 

 

The problem is that they often cross county lines unlike in the south where
no admin level =7 crosses an admin_level=6 boundary. JOSM will fair hiss I
tells yiz. 

 

The 32 counties with admin_level=6 tags no longer legally matter SAVE that
most admin_level=6 entities in the south are coextant with an admin_level=7
entity with the same name, excepting Cork Dublin and Galway which have more
admin_level=7 entities than admin_level=6 entities.

 

Admin_level=5 entities (provinces) have not existed since the Normans cane,
in effect. We maintain them as an administrative conceit like we do
admin_level=6. :)

 

In NI Electoral Divisions are boundary=historic (like baronies and cps and
rds and plu’s are) and with no admin level tag, this has been the case since
1923, long before OSM ever came along.

 

HTH