For many years Ireland has been a popular tourist destination and tourism has been one of the most significant social, economic and cultural forces in Irish society. Irish Tourism: Image, Culture and Identity engages with major national and international debates on contemporary tourism through cutting-edge research. The book explores the multi-faceted nature of this important phenomenon, drawing on current work in sociology, cultural studies, ethnography, and language studies. For those who theorise about tourism and those who make practical day-to-day decisions on tourism policy, Irish Tourism will provide invaluable insights into historical and contemporary tourist representations, practices and impacts. In addressing issues such as the relationship between the local and the global in tourist settings, the construction of tourist imagery and products, and the development of tourism policy, contributors to Irish Tourism offer an innovative and critical analysis of the impact of global tourism on a small country. This book will be indispensable reading for students and scholars in Tourism Studies and Irish Studies and will also be essential for students of sociology, cultural studies, geography, languages and anthropology.

Contributors
Introduction
Part 1: Changing Places: The Local and the Global in Tourist Communities
1. Moya Kneafsey: ‘If It Wasn’t for the Tourists We Wouldn’t Have an Audience’: The Case of Tourism and Traditional Music in North Mayo
2. Ruth Casey: Defining the Local: The Development of an ‘Environment Culture’ in a Clare Village
3. Bernadette Quinn: Shaping Tourism Places: Agency and Interconnection in Festival Settings
Part 2: Performing Heritage: The Globalisation of Tourist Products and Practices
4. Mark McGovern: ‘The Cracked Pint Glass of the Servant’: The Irish Pub, Irish Identity and the Tourist Eye
5. Eamonn Slater: Constructing an Exotic ‘Stroll’ through Irish Heritage: The Aran Islands Heritage Centre
6. Barbara O’Connor: ‘Come and Daunce with Me in Irlande’: Tourism, Dance and Globalisation
Part 3: The Power of the Gaze: Negotiating Tourist and Native Identities
7. Annette Jorgensen: Power, Knowledge and Tourguiding: The Construction of Irish Identity on Board County Wicklow Tour Buses
8. Máirín Nic Eoin: The Native Gaze: Literary Perceptions of Tourists in the West Kerry Gaeltacht
Part 4: Imagining Ireland: The Construction of Tourist Representations
9. Michael Cronin: Next to Being There: Ireland of the Welcomes and Tourism of the Word
10. Stephanie Rains: Home from Home: Diasporic Images of Ireland in Film and Tourism
11. Justin Carville: Photography, Tourism and Natural History: Cultural Identity and the Visualisation of the Natural World
Part 5: Tourism Policy: Historical and Contemporary Issues
12. Juliette Péchenart: Tongue-tied: Language, Culture and Changing Trends in Irish Tourism Employment
13. Spurgeon Thompson: ‘Not Only Beef, But Beauty . . . ’: Tourism, Dependency, and the Post-colonial Irish State, 1925–30
Index