Geography in Ireland in transition

In this short commentary I want to reflect on Irish Geography in the new millennium, and what I perceive to have been a major transition in the state and development of the discipline since 2000. I will be the first to admit that it is a convenient coincidence that the start of the story I want to tell begins at the point when the new millennium dawned, and the genesis of the tale certainly has it origins in the years beforehand. That said, I do think the date has significance as a rough temporal marker of the beginnings of a remarkable set of factors that I believe has transformed, and continues to transform, Irish Geography. I am mindful that what follows is a situated narrative, and I am sure that others will view differently the development of Irish Geography over the last five years. It would therefore be interesting to compare and contrast personal views of Irish geography and I would welcome dialogue on the health of the discipline on the island of Ireland. Such dialogue, I believe, can only be productive in thinking through the recent past and our stewardship of the future