GIS and heritage data services
Spatial analysis, interactive mapping, and historical records digitisation for organisations working with place-based data.
I'm Dónal O'Tiarnaigh, a GIS consultant based in the south of Ireland. I take on defined project work across spatial analysis, mapping, public data, and historical records — from a single focused piece of analysis through to a finished interactive tool. My background combines spatial analysis with software-oriented problem-solving, and I hold a postgraduate qualification in Geographical Information Systems from University College Cork.
Most projects start with the shape and quality of the data itself: boundaries, classifications, missing values, OCR noise, or uneven upstream sources. Deliverables are documented so they can be revisited later and defended in terms of both method and practical usefulness.
You can see how these methods apply in practice in the project archive.
What I Do
- Spatial analysis and mapping
Proximity and accessibility analysis, spatial joins, choropleth mapping, and classification work — using QGIS, ArcGIS Pro, and R to answer specific questions about place.
- Interactive maps and monitoring tools
Web maps and dashboards that make a dataset explorable rather than simply readable, whether the source is a static export or a live feed.
- Public data and workflow tooling
Cleaning, structuring, validating, and joining fragmented public datasets so they become usable for analysis, monitoring, or publication.
- Historical records digitisation
A fully managed transcription service for archival collections — burial registers, grave record sheets, estate papers, and custom formats — delivered as structured CSV or JSON. Records are automatically scored for confidence, and anything below threshold is reviewed and resolved before delivery rather than passed back to you to fix. Quality assurance covers completeness and consistency; I recommend your own domain experts review outputs for subject-matter accuracy.
How I Work
Start with the record
I begin with the shape and quality of the underlying data, because boundaries, classifications, and missing values shape what any analysis can honestly claim.
Build for interpretation
Maps, dashboards, and summaries are most useful when they help a reader move from raw material to understanding quickly and honestly.
Keep it explainable
I favour workflows that can be documented clearly, revisited later, and defended in terms of both method and practical usefulness.
Selected Work
St Luke's Church, Douglas, Cork
- ~500 burial register pages transcribed and structured
- Automatic confidence scoring with human review flagging
- Output delivered as CSV, ready for heritage portal import
- Discrepancies flagged and resolved before final delivery
Other project work is written up on this site: mapping Ardmore in the 1926 Census, a real-time flood monitoring dashboard, and healthcare access and vulnerability in Ireland.
Get in Touch
If you have a project in mind — or want to discuss whether it is a good fit — get in touch and describe the question, the data you hold, and the output you need. I am happy to say if something is outside what I do well.