Cultural difference, first expressed by the different attitudes to land use, soon rippled out to include the inherent instability of Irish society. Mapping, surveying, and administrative divisions were rational, mathematical, and scientific approaches to the problem of a rebellious population inhabiting “a space removed from decency,” but in the end they only seemed to expose just how complex the problems were. Even when combined with a strategy that aimed to use the increasing knowledge about Ireland with the introduction of solid, civil, and sedentary material culture, the Irish stubbornly persisted in their defiance and rejection of the various civil strategies introduced by royal officials.