Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Narratives of the Irish Landscape, 1886-1914
K.J. James
Department of History, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Introduction
countries, in attracting British tourists to its
shores. The promoters of tourism anticipated
that the late 19th century would witness the
dawn of a new era in Irish tourism, heralded by
increasing numbers of visitors.
In producing images of Ireland to advance
this goal, tourism-advocates repeatedly reached
across the Irish Sea to fi nd a vocabulary with
which to frame Ireland's attractions as a tour-
ist destination. Motivations behind describing
landscapes in this way were multi-faceted. Bor-
rowing from a lexicon of continental place-
names that signifi ed both striking beauty and
modern comfort, place-promoters sometimes
aimed to portray Ireland as a tourist destination
that was equally scenic and comfortable to tour.
By transferring to Ireland positive images asso-
ciated with the Swiss and Norwegian tourist
sectors - and in particular their reputations for
cleanliness and comfort - promoters of the
Emerald Isle aimed to inscribe Irish 'Alps' and
'fjords' in the tourist imagination.
The instrumentality of employing such a
vocabulary was clear: the Earl of Mayo, a pro-
ponent of 'tourist development' and leading
member of the Irish Tourist Association (ITA),
lamented in 1895 that Ireland's proponents
laboured under a crippling disadvantage: posi-
tive images were more easily conjured of con-
tinental countries, thanks to extensive and
effective promotional campaigns, so that 'every
place they went abroad they would see the most
The guidebook
'Irish Times' Tours in Ireland
(1888, p. 127), describing the tourist's early-
morning approach to Ireland from Holyhead,
Wales, contrasted the 'dull, ragged, and bare'
scenery at the tourist's back with the splendours
of the Irish coast at sun-rise: 'The deep purples
of the shadier cliffs stand out against that bril-
liant green of fi eld and cliff, which neither Kent
nor Cumberland can outvie.' The juxtaposition
of the striking scenery on view to the tourist as
Ireland neared, and the 'dawning' of the day as
the shore was reached, produced a highly evoc-
ative narrative of the tourist's fi rst glimpse of the
Irish coastline.
The explicit discussion of Kent and Cum-
berland, and the contrast between Welsh and
Irish coasts, also added an important compara-
tive dimension to the 'image' of the Irish coast,
and implicitly relied on the reader's familiarity
with those British sites in order to succeed as a
rhetorical device. Promoters of the Irish tourist
sector hoped that such narratives, and the posi-
tive images they sought to implant within the
British tourist imagination, would lead tourists
to visualize Ireland as a proximate vacation-
ground in which they could behold the gran-
deur of Britain and also sneak glimpses of
continental Europe. In turn, the Emerald Isle
could outvie not only England and Wales, but
also Scotland, Switzerland, and a host of other
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