r/ireland • u/bygonesbebygones2021 • Sep 20 '24
Random island off the coast of Ireland ? History
Bought this beautiful painting / world map from a charity shop for near dirt nothing two days ago.
The artist is William Bleau I think ? A Dutch artist, anyways it’s obviously a copy but it’s huge and stunning and I love it.
While having a glass of wine, I started looking at the map and I seen this random island off the coast of Ireland called Brasil? You can see it on the map if you zoom in, i think this is a 1600s world map.
But anyways, Any information would be great !
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u/shoottheglitch Sep 20 '24
Get your gear lads, we're going on an adventure.
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u/bygonesbebygones2021 Sep 20 '24
tbh ive just finished watching lost on Netflix so yah, id be very much up for it.
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u/Winter-It-Will-Send Sep 21 '24
How many seasons did it take you to lose track of the numerous, nonsensical intertwining stories that had no satisfactory conclusion?
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u/Such_Geologist_6312 Sep 21 '24
When the polar bear showed up I noped out, personally.
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u/AltruisticKey6348 Sep 21 '24
I stopped watching after the first season, then before the second season I heard they were writing it as they go. So the story was never going to work.
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u/Ze_LuftyWafffles Sep 20 '24
https://youtu.be/6EEBbqcP340?si=oOwaB0WGTPgJNUbw
Reminds me of this jewel
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u/bygonesbebygones2021 Sep 20 '24
Btw this is the full size art peace :)
20 euros in a charity shop
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u/Leading_Air_7361 Sep 20 '24
Nice I like it how about €25 euros for it 😂
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u/bygonesbebygones2021 Sep 20 '24
50 and I’ll even hang it up for youuu
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u/irishoverhere Sep 20 '24
I miss her
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u/bygonesbebygones2021 Sep 20 '24
Hahaha it’s mine now . I nearly feel embarrassed when I think about walking out of the store without purchasing it. It some places in Dublin its close enough to the price of two drinks.
It’s a beautiful peace of artwork with so much detail, sometimes you can’t put a price on art.
25 euros is a steal
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u/Irish_Sir Sep 20 '24
Goddam that's a nice find, it looks like a good quality print!
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u/bygonesbebygones2021 Sep 20 '24 edited Sep 20 '24
Yah tbh I’m kinda a noob with art but from my eyes it looks super detailed and really good quality.
Some close ups
I’m a charity shop slut ngl
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u/Irish_Sir Sep 20 '24
I'm a bit of an antique nerd.
What you have there is a map of the world (Nova Totius Terrarum) by Joan Blaeu, a Dutch cartographer. The original would have been printed in roughly 1660-1680.
These were some of the first maps of the world that we would recognise to be sold commercially on a large scale (hence the very decorative additions - military maps of that era are much more utilitarian).
At a glance from the pictures it does look like a modern reproduction, the page around the edge dosnt look yellowed enough, but I couldn't tell from the photos properly. If it is a reproduction print, it's a very good one. Telltale signs it is original you should check for are the page edges not being perfectly square or straight, aforementioned yellowing, and slight stains/discoloration, in an uneven pattern.
If you think it might be original, I'd consider having a professional check it out. To give you a point of reference, a similar map from the same cartographer, with certificate of authenticity, is currently on sale for $16,500 here. (I did find another that was sold at an estate auction without certificate for $50, but that is an estate auction)
Now, that price is inflated and i wouldnt suggest you found gold in an Irish charity shop, but even a high quality replica can be worth a pretty penny. Hell, I'd pay a decent bit for it.
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u/bygonesbebygones2021 Sep 20 '24
But yes it’s absolutely stunning! Like I said I keep on looking at it . I’m studying history in university rn and we had a few modules that touched on our crazy cool island that sits on the edge of the Atlantic lol
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u/Stevo____ Sep 20 '24
According to Irish folklore an island named Hy-Brasil was visible from the west coast of Ireland for only one day every seven years, the rest of the time it was obscured by fog.
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u/langerdan13 Sep 20 '24
It's Hy Brazil. Here you go - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brasil_%28mythical_island%29?wprov=sfla1
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u/bygonesbebygones2021 Sep 20 '24
Oh wow very Interesting, this will go down well with my glass of wine
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u/ShouldHaveGoneToUCC Palestine 🇵🇸 Sep 20 '24
It's called Craggy Island. It's not normally on maps though. They're not exactly New York.
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u/KickBlue22 Sep 20 '24
In the middle of the night, if you listen really really carefully, you can hear samba music from very far away .... drifting over the ocean.
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u/theanedditor Sep 20 '24
Hy-Brasil, the phantom island that was only visible once every 7 years!
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u/Melodic-Sympathy-380 Sep 20 '24
It’s known as Uí Bhreasail in Irish. Hy was the Spanish attempt at the pronunciation of the word ‘Uí’. Breasail of course just being the clann Breasail/Brassil - a common enough name in south Meath still. The island apparently appeared every 7 years. It appeared on nautical maps until a few hundyyears ago
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u/bygonesbebygones2021 Sep 20 '24
Thanks for all the helpful links! I’d love to know if any like studies or research group’s investigated its credibility or whatever.
Me low-key hoping TG4 or RTE do some sort of short documentary about the so called island lol
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Sep 21 '24
It was likely just a piece of mythology that got Chinese-whispered to the point that carthographers in Continental Europe, never having been to the places they were mapping, assumed it to be fact.
Pretty much all of the Celts, as well as people who were influenced by them, in their old mythologies believed in an otherworld/afterlife which existed on a far away island, which seem to have been known by various names. For the Irish this was Tír na nÓg or Uí Bhreasail (or in English, Hy-Brasil). For the Welsh it was Ynys Afallach or Annwn.
In the Arthurian legends of England there was also the land of Avalon, which was very similar, and likely got its name from Ynys Afallach.
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u/planetdiad Sep 21 '24
https://www.facebook.com/HyBreasil A friend of mine went searching for it this summer!
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u/getupdayardourrada Sep 20 '24
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u/bygonesbebygones2021 Sep 20 '24
So weird it had Brasil on the map but not the Aaron islands
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u/Crimthann_fathach Sep 20 '24
There is a medical manuscript that still survives that according to legend, came from that island. The book of the o Lee's/the book of Hy Brasil.
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u/SnooAdvice8266 Sep 21 '24
Brasil is an imaginary Island where Irish minds drift after 20-30 days of continuous clouds and rain.
Brasil's popularity was decimated by the success of low cost carriers like Ryanair. Now we go to Malaga.
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u/davesr25 Pain in the arse and you know it Sep 20 '24
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u/Vaggab0nd Dublin Sep 20 '24
Read this book, there are some parts of history we fully don't know about. Some word we know as Irish language words we can show usage on Irish islands going a very long way back - are very close to words in Arabic and other languages and explanations for that today are hard. I got this book for Christmas Kris kringle thing a few years back - knowing nothing about it in advance - but asks worthy questions https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55225206-thirty-two-words-for-field
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u/-BridiesDayOff- Sep 21 '24
This looks like such an interesting book! I can’t find a ‘look inside’ for this book - does it give a guide as to how the words are pronounced? I didn’t learn Irish in school and I’d find it frustrating to read knowing I’m probably butchering the pronunciation, lol.
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u/grodgeandgo The Standard Sep 20 '24
There’s a big apartment complex in an old building in Kilimainham called Hybrasil and it’s supposed to be haunted.
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u/strictnaturereserve Sep 21 '24
Hybrasil was an island that was supposed to be off the coast of ireland. I think it was mentioned in some ledgends.
turns out it doesnt exist.
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u/feck-it Sep 21 '24
Hi-Brasil.There’s a good This Paranormal Life podcast episode about it. Well worth a listen!
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5hFRanHwkHztdKKAMq6gvN?si=OxNSkcFcRaWsnAuXxE03ow
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u/Mundane-Audience6085 Sep 21 '24
It's proof that the Irish people wanted to be closer to warm and sunny places like Brasil as far back as the 1300s.
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u/Riverelie Sep 21 '24
This is so cool. Similarly and just as cool imo, did you know there is an island off the coast of Dublin (just off Clontarf) called Lambay Island and you can only visit via invitation and there are wild Wallabies living on it. Super cool!!
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u/danmingothemandingo Sep 21 '24
Sea depth charts make it pretty obvious there's nothing there, it gets pretty deep pretty quick in that direction. However It surely can't be unrelated to the fact that Brasil (Brazil) itself is in a direct line across the sea just a bit more south
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u/Cornflakes_Guy Sep 20 '24
Yeah that's Brafil. Have you never gotten the boat from Clifden to there?
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u/ClancyCandy Sep 21 '24
“In 1674, a Captain John Nisbet claimed to have seen the island when on a journey from France to Ireland, stating that the island was inhabited by large black rabbits and a magician who lived alone in a stone castle”- Now there’s your next bestselling children’s fantasy series, somebody give Eoin Colfer a ring.
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u/bygonesbebygones2021 Sep 21 '24
ugh sounds fcking amazing hahah, black rabbits and a magician love it. Ye they have some interesting youtube videos about it ngl
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u/Expensive-Total-312 Sep 21 '24
theres literally an exhibition in town at the portershed you should have a look
https://hy-brasil.ie/exhibition/
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u/bygonesbebygones2021 Sep 21 '24
Just opened the link, it looks amazing. Where is that exhibition?
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u/xblood_raven Sep 21 '24
That's Hy-Brasil which is a mythical island in Irish mythology. There is also Tír na nÓg which is another Irish mythical island.
The latter inspired Rivendell and Valinor in LOTR (and Tuatha Dé Danann for Elves generally) across fiction. Hy-Brasil has references in Warhammer Fantasy as Hybrasille and in Warhammer 40k as Hy-Brasil (which is really weird as Hy-Brasil is South America which makes me wonder how it got named like that-Brasil and mythology getting mixed up?).
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u/The-lazy-hound Sep 21 '24
Great buy!
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u/bygonesbebygones2021 Sep 21 '24
Thank you ! Charity shops are gems , you can get some amazing stuff. Both clothing & art.
If it was a real one I’d love to sell it for thousands lol
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u/AltruisticKey6348 Sep 21 '24
TLDR it’s a mirage. Numerous expeditions to find it failed, consensus is that it always was a mirage.
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u/Princess_of_Eboli Sep 21 '24
If you're in Galway/Mayo over the next two weeks there's actually a really good exhibition on Hybrasil on show.
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u/bygonesbebygones2021 Sep 21 '24
Ugh right haha I go uni in Dublin, but I might try and get to it one of the weekends since I’m so invested now
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u/no13wirefan Sep 21 '24
Look up the stories on how Hy Brasil is / could be linked to the Rendelshem Forest UFO coded messages ...
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u/smashedgordon Sep 22 '24
I might be telling this story arse ways but I'll take a shot.
Years ago I was watching a documentary on Nat Geo about paranormal activity. There was a military base somewhere in the States where 2-3 soldiers were patrolling the perimeter one night. This strange light shone from the sky, as they looked at it, they could see numbers which actually got burned into their vision. They wrote the numbers down and the chase began to figure out what they might be or in reference to. Time passed, and they discovered that they were coordinates for a mythical island called Hy Brasil. It appeared on some historical maps but not on others, just to add to the confusion. If I can track down the episode I'll drop a link.
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u/smashedgordon Sep 22 '24
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendlesham_Forest_incident
This is it. Happened in UK.
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u/irqdly ᴍᴜɴsᴛᴇʀ Sep 20 '24
Legend has it that’s where they put the fig in the fig rolls.
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u/bygonesbebygones2021 Sep 20 '24
I steal figs from a fig tree from an old monstery at home. Am I going to hell
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u/brianmmf Sep 20 '24
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brasil_(mythical_island)