I am currently lecturing in Historical Geography in the School of Geography at UCD, Ireland. My main research area is into the phenomenon known as Cilliní, or Children’s Burial Grounds. Such sites were used to inter unbaptised babies outside of consecrated landscapes and there are over 1,400 such sites recorded in Ireland. My focus was initially on typologies of these post-medieval segregated burial type. My case study looked at all examples from Achill and surrounding Islands off the west coast of Ireland. However, more recently I have turn my attention to a geospatial analysis of the entire Irish dataset. Using GIS to unpack the very complex drivers of their placement on the Irish landscape has provided valuable new insights into, not only the idea of liminal burials, but also the environments in which they were placed.

Robinson, D. (2023) ‘Recounting the connections: A geospatial assessment of the established links between Children’s Burial Grounds and both human and natural landscape features, with new insights into the role of the Clachán post medieval settlement type on their placement’, Conference of Irish Geographers. Wexford, Ireland: Geographical Society of Ireland.