Robert Dighton’s ‘Geography Bewitched! or, a droll Caricature MAP of IRELAND.

It”s a portrait of Lady Hibernia Bull’, wife of John Bull. She is shown here in sedentary pose, facing westward, against a sky background and above a small harbour scene. Hibernia’s head, with a smiling and potato-wielding baby in her shawl behind, forms the historic province of Ulster; Leinster is formed by the rest of her shamrock-embroidered shawl; her dress drapes over Munster but with shoes shaped by the Dingle and Iveragh peninsulas, while the western province of Connacht is rendered as the perennial Irish motif of the harp. The harp has held a centuries-old association with Irish culture, along with its common use in heraldry in various Irish coats of arms since medieval times, and to this day constitutes the Irish state’s official emblem.

Monday Maps