At Home and Abroad

Jim Rees on the Fitzwilliams & the Coolattin Clearances Jim Rees, a Wicklow resident and historian with a History Masters Degree from NUI Maynooth, has had a lifelong passion for history and literature. He has written extensively and lectured widely on topics such as emigration and maritime history. Between 1847 and 1856, Earl Fitzwilliam removed 6,000 men, women and children from his 80,000 acre Coolattin Estate. Most were sent to Quebec while many travelled onward to settlements in Upper Canada (Ontario) and New Brunswick. The Irish Historic Towns Atlas (IHTA) was established with the aim to record the topographical development of a selection of Irish towns both large and small. Each town is published separately as a fascicle or folder and includes a series of maps complemented by a detailed text section. The Irish Historic Towns Atlas is part of a wider European scheme, with towns atlases containing broadly similar information available for a number of countries. Thus Irish towns can be studied in their European context.