As Hughes constructed his Geography dept. he was careful not to let it be a continuum of 2nd level, giving students knowledge and perspectives beyond the ability to list counties and Rivers nation-wide. His dedication to Irish Historical Geography is not reflected however in volumes of published works as he was not an extremely prolific writer, however he was very active in ‘Baile’ ‘Geography’ and ‘The Geographical Society of Ireland’, and although he looked at various aspects of the landscape there were common themes in which he took a specific interest; regions and regionalism, land tenure (distribution, ownership, size, quality etc) language and nomad culture.
Hughes had a huge influence on shaping Irish geography particularly on 3rd level curriculum. His open-door method encouraged his students to seek advice and guidance while he gained a wider knowledge of Ireland. Through his use of documentation he tapped into a geography of Ireland which encapsulated landlords, tenants, estate systems, land tenures, land ownership and distribution on both national and regional scales. Hughes as an outsider to the country was able to provide a renewed vision of Historical geography through small-scale fieldworks such as those carried out in Cooley, Co. Louth and Co. Mayo as well as larger ones in East Leinster, Tipperary and Wexford. Through his interpretations he concluded that Evans’ idea of ‘clahans’ in the West of Ireland were less likely to be icons of prehistory and more likely to be products of refugees. Hughes left behind a great legacy within the discipline of geography, which awakened an interest in a period in Irish history marred by folklore, half-truths and rumours (e.g. effects and behaviour of landlords, impacts of colonialism, famine etc..) and His methods encouraged students to view their localities from a new perspective and pushed them to be active in geographical study. Hughes had a pre-occupation with continuity within the landscape as opposed to looking at the separate impacts of various historic events he viewed it as a:
‘Timeless world of universal themes’.
Estyn Evans was also extremely influential in terms of 3rd level curriculum and in shaping the discipline of Irish Geography. However Evans has been widely criticised for much of his work as it is claimed that it has no theoretical framework and focuses primarily on the Northern Counties in Ireland as a separate region to the rest of the country. Like Hughes, Evans was also educated in Aberystwyth Wales, after which he began working in Queens University Belfast in 1928, some time earlier than Hughes in Dublin.
Evans was particularly interested in the relationship between man and his environment looking at the manifestations that such a relationship produced on the Irish landscape. He believed that in the landscape he could identify:
‘The marginal survival of archaic elements of the indo-European world’ (Evans 1957-but taken from an article written by Willie Nolan). Evans wrote extensively and in comparison to Hughes had a much wider volume of published work under his belt, the fact that four festchriften were dedicated to him is testament to this fact. His book ‘The Mourne Country’ in 1951 is often regarded as one of his greatest publications and an extremely comprehensive collection of regional writings. However his paper in ‘Geography’ as early as 1939 was received with critical acclaim and became very important for the development of his later work. The paper centred around a settlement site in north-west Donegal where he observed patterns that comprised of nucleated settlement on communal land tenure and open-field agriculture. This pattern of early settlement in Donegal he claimed was specific to just the Northern region in Ireland.In this settlement area he noticed that arable produce supplemented cultivation, and the natural environment was used to its full potential in order to benefit the inhabitants of the settlement area. The relationship as created by the settlers between man and the land was very important to Evans and he believed that it was an intrinsic part of settlement history in Ireland.
In the same town he discovered Neolithic settlement sites from which he coined the phrase ‘clachans’ a term that continued to be used by his peers and subsequent geographers.
However despite his great contribution in both writing and geographical studies, Evans has received a lot of criticisms down through the years, which range from his lack of theoretical framework to accusing him of allowing a certain political agenda to mar his geographical work. Brian J Graham in particular has written extensively criticising Evans’ work. Evans’ pre-occupation with the Northern counties claiming them to have distinctive features than the rest of the Irish landscape is particularly negative according to Graham, who claims that:
Evans’ views on regional distinctiveness can be depicted as no more than a convenient prop to Unionist ideology’
However this does not mean that Evans was anti-Nationalist in any way, Graham argues that Evans attempted to create a specific geography and therefore identity for Ulster, dating back to pre-Christian Ireland thus steering clear of any religious or controversial issues. However in doing this Graham argues that Evans:
‘Minimises their importance in the wider and even international context’. In some respects Evans’ search for commonality undermined his work according to Graham, however it should be kept in mind that Graham himself is writing from a particular Northern Irish perspective.
(It should be kept in mind that Evans’ early idea of regionalism as opposed to nationalism is re-surfacing within European geography as Europe is regarded more and more as an area comprising of distinct regions as opposed to nation-states.)
Evans has also been slightly criticised for his work on ‘clahans’ his sometimes wide-sweeping generalisations on further regional settlements, his lack of interest in urban issues ignoring topical occurrences in Belfast City at that time and his insufficient theoretical framework. These criticisms have tarnished some of his pioneering work in the field of historical geography.
Despite all these criticisms Evans’ contribution to Geography cannot be undervalued, as he undoubtedly helped us to understand the geography of Ireland during the historical 19th century. Evans studied mans relationship with his environment looking particularly at settlement patterns and artefacts that remained from Irish history. Evans was one of the first professional geographers in Ireland and his work pioneered geography and how it should be taught within 3rd level institutions.
He used perspective, free from any religious or sectarian connotations allowing students to study this discipline and their localities with renewed interest. Not only did Evans’ work contribute to our understanding of historical Ireland and settlement patterns but his teaching also inspired some very important individuals in Northern Ireland. John M. Mogey for example went on to publish ‘Rural Life in Northern Ireland’ in 1947 which studied the human physical types in County Antrim. Some of his students were also involved in The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum and The Ulster Museum. Others continued to work within the field of geography developing it as a topic of study.