Timeline of the Geological Survey of Ireland

Abstracted and slightly amended from Herries Davies, G.L. North From the Hook. 1996.

1 April 1845	The Geological Survey of the United Kingdom comes into existence under the directorship of Henry De la Beche. The Geological Survey of Ireland was a constituent part under the first Local Director Captain Henry James. The Irish survey was first located in the Customs House, Dublin.
2 May 1844	De La Beche instructs that the geological survey should begin in south-eastern Ireland.
4 July 1846	Thomas Oldham takes over from Henry James as Local Director.
26 June 1848	The Survey publishes its first map. The County map of Wicklow.
1848	Four longitudinal sections were published (now known as the 'Old Series'). (Sheet 1. Section from the Bilboa Colliery across Croaghan Kinshela to Arklow Rock; Sheet 2. Section from Dunlavin, across Lugnaquilla and Croaghan-Moira to the sea-coast near Johnstown; Sheet 3. Section from near Kilcullen, in the county of Kildare, to Mizen Head, in the county of Wicklow; Sheet 4. No. 1. Section from Glencree across Sugar Loaf Hill, in the county of Wicklow).
30 November 1850	J.B. Jukes takes over as the third Local Director.
May 1851	County maps of Dublin and Wexford were published. They were the last county maps published of a short-lived series.
5 May 1855	Sir Roderick Murchison becomes Director of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom.
1 December 1855	Murchison instructs that every one-inch sheet is to have an accompanying memoir.
December 1856	The first one-inch sheets were published. (Renumbered sheets 36 and 41, 120,121,129,130,139,148 and 149).
28 July 1858	First memoir published. (Sheet 45SE renumbered later as sheet 166).
April 1860	First four 'New Series' longitudinal sections were published.
1 April 1867	The UK survey expands, Murchison becomes Director General, Jukes becomes Director.
1 July 1867	Jukes' Geological Map of Ireland published, but not by the Survey.
16 October 1869	Edward Hull is appointed Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland following the death of Jukes.
March 1870	The Survey offices move to 14 Hume Street (from 51 St. Stephen's Green).
15 March 1872	Andrew Crombie Ramsay becomes Director General of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom.
1873	The Ordnance Survey of Ireland one-inch hauchered 'hill edition' becomes the base map for all future one-inch geological sheets.
October 1874	First sheet on the new 'hill edition' base map published (Sheet 28).
30 March 1878	Hull's Geological Map of Ireland is published.
1879–1881	Revision of the early mapping in the South of Ireland is undertaken by Hull and Symes.
9 August 1881	An instruction from Ramsay directs that the survey will undertake field-mapping on the one-inch scale rather than the six-inch scale.
1 January 1882	Archibald Geikie becomes becomes Director General of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom.
October 1887	The primary geological mapping of Ireland is completed in the vicinity of Rathmelton in County Donegal.
1 October 1890	Joseph Nolan takes over the Survey with the title: Senior Geologist in Charge.
21 November 1890	The final sheet of the one-inch geological series is published (Sheet 10 Kilmacrenan).
1 April 1892	The final one-inch memoir is published (For sheets 22,23,30 & 31 (part of) Explanatory memoir to accompany the maps of south-west Donegal).
December 1894	The final horizontal section is published. Horizontal or longitudinal section 35. Section 1. From Ray Point, Lough Swilly, in a north–north-west direction across Knockalla to the Atlantic Ocean at Rinmore Point. Showing Metamorphic and Igneous Rocks and Lower Old Red Sandstone. Section 2. From Lough Fern in a north-west direction across Lough Salt Mountain, and east of Dunfanaghy to the Atlantic Ocean at Horn Head. Showing Metamorphic and Igneous Rocks.
1 March 1901	Jethro J.H. Teale becomes Director of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom.
1 May 1901	G.W. Lamplugh is appointed to run the Survey under the title: District Geologist.
1901–1906	Drift surveys of Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Limerick and Londonderry are established.
1 April 1905	Responsibility for the Geological Survey of Ireland passed from the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom to the Department of Agriculture and technical Instruction for Ireland. G.A. Cole becomes the Director of the Survey.