Dear child,
Have you ever tried to find your way around a new place? It can be confusing, right? But imagine if you had a special code that could tell you exactly where to go on a map. This code is called an Irish Grid Reference System.
The Irish Grid Reference System is a way to locate places in Ireland using two sets of numbers. The first set of numbers tells you how far east or west a place is. The second set tells you how far north or south it is from a central point. This central point is the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland.
Here is an example to help you understand better: let's say we want to find a place called Grafton Street. Using a map, we can see that it lies to the east and south of Dublin's city center. We can then use the Irish Grid Reference System to find its exact location.
The first number tells us how far east it is. We can say that Grafton Street lies 715,000 meters east of Dublin. The second number tells us how far south it is. We can say that Grafton Street is 7,232,500 meters south of Dublin. We put those two numbers together, and we get the reference number: O150732.
So, using this system, anyone can find a location in Ireland by referring to its Irish Grid Reference.
I hope that helps you understand what the Irish Grid Reference System is all about!