Over the past year, we’ve been busy digitising information for each of the 792 rural areas connected during the Rural Electrification Scheme 1946-1965.

Key stats such as date connected, the number of households connected along with an image of the original rural map showing the area boundary are now online for each of the 792 areas. Many areas also feature anecdotes, photos and reporting information from the time the crew worked in that area.

We are delighted to have this resource available ahead of the 70th anniversary of the scheme on 5th November and look forward to adding more facts and information as we continue to digitise our collection.

Search using our interactive map

Click here to open map in full screen.

Click on any of the 792 areas (represented by the pins) on our google map to reveal the key information and a link to our website page for that area.

If instead you click on a county polygon you will be provided with a link to our web page about that county. This page features the original map and a list of links to all the rural areas within that county listed in the order of which they were connected.

Alternatively, you can select county from the alphabetical list on the right hand side of this page.

ESB Rural areas were typically based on parish or creamery boundaries with counties having an average of 30 areas.  ESB never used ‘county’ as a geographical organisational unit but we have grouped areas by county here to help you search.

These maps and statistics relate to the 792 rural areas used in the roll out of the first phase of rural electrification in Ireland (1946-1965) only. For more information relating to the implementation of the scheme, as well as phases of post-development and extension post-1965, click here.