Where Geography and History Meet: Heritage Tourism and the Big House in Ireland Author(s): Nuala C.

Johnson Reviewed work(s): Source: Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 86, No. 3 (Sep., 1996), pp. 551-566 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of American Geographers Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2564184 . Accessed: 19/11/2012 12:56
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Where Geographyand HistoryMeet: HeritageTourismand the Big House in Ireland

Nuala C. Johnson School of Geosciences,Queens University he longgenealogy romantic of imagesof rural Irelandprompted some Dubliners, earlierin this century, suspect that to "there was no culture Ireland, in onlyagriculture"(Titley 1990:130). In the 1990s, however, withEuropean Unionset-aside policy, increasing ruralmigration, and the proliferation of heritage centersone might suggestthatthere is no agriculture Ireland, in only tourism culture. Worldwide tourist is activity growing a rate at of fiveto six percentper annum and is expected to become the largest source of employment theyear2000 (Williams Shaw by and 1988). Giventhisprospect, maybe wise to it notewithMacCannell(1992:1) that"tourism is not just an aggregateof merelycommercial it activities; is also an ideologicalframing of history, nature tradition; framing has and a that the powerto reshapeculture and nature its to own needs." Tourism's framing history of and itsrelationship narratives national with of idenhave assumed increasedsignificance tity with theemergence heritage of tourism "gazing (or on the past")(Urry 1990) as one of the dominanttypesof tourist activity. Heritage tourism, of course,poses questionsabout authenticity and about the representation geographical of and historical knowledge.In thispaper,I analyzeone variant heritage of tourism-the stately home or,inthe Irish context, "bighouse." the By focusing this particularly on controversial butfamiliar in Ireland's icon past,I emphasize and competingrepresentations the ways in whichvoices conventionally absent,sanitized, or peripheralized have been incorporated in heritage landscapes.In so doing,I attempt to amplify Lumley's thatmu(1988:2) suggestion seumsserve"as a potentsocialmetaphor and as a meanswherebysocietiesrepresent their relationship their to own history to thatof and othercultures." case ofthe representation The ofone landedestate, Strokestown House, Park County Roscommon,challengesand reconciles popularviews of Ireland's past by restoring the historical narrative its geographical to context. anchoring narrative localhisthe By in toricalgeography and by eschewingan approach that reifies local events into national political and cultural processes,the site provokes productive debates about the nature of regional,national, and global identities. The contention heritage that is tourism merely and invariably "bogus history" (Hewison 1987) is thusre-examined.

Representing the Past in the Landscape

Interpretationsthe pastand popularconof ceptionsof national cultural are identity inextricable. Hobsbawmand Ranger As (1983) suggest,the cultural history associatedwitha nation'sidentity often derivesfrom more recent interpretations tailoredto particular political needs. In the nineteenth century, instance, for national identities were shaped by history teachingin national education,the institution ofpublicholidays rituals, the picturing and and of nationallandscapes through art,architecand statuary. contributed the emerAll ture, to gence of national "imaginedcommunities" (Anderson 1983; see also Cosgrove and Daniels 1988; Daniels 1993; Smith 1986; Lowenthal 1991; Johnson 1992). Whilean academicliterature exposed some oftheprochas esses involved themaking thesetraditions in of 1992), the heritage thanks itsrapid industry, to globalexpansionover the lastcouple of dec(see Allen, Journal of Historical Geography

Annals theAssociation American of of Geographers, 86(3), 1996, pp. 551-566 ?1996 byAssociation American of Geographers Published Blackwell by Publishers, MainStreet, 238 Cambridge, 02142, and 108 CowleyRoad,Oxford, MA OX4 1lF,UK.

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552

Johnson in and museums,it offers little the way of a sustained analysis any of the myriad of examples presented. fails adequately It to emphasize that "the strategies museums deploy have been, and remain,contingent and variable" 1 (Sherman and Rogoff994:xvii). Thisliterature, therefore, evaluates heritage the industry vis-a'vissome better (albeit also subjective) measure of authenticity (Hewison 1987; Wright 1985; Lumley 1988). These issuesofrepresentation, textual strategies,and "objective" interpretationsthe eviof in dence reappear thecontext therevisionist of debate in Irish academic historiography. And theyresonatewithsome of the same misgivingsvoiced againstthe heritage For industry. Seamus Deane (1994:241), revisionism a 'is retrospective vision-as all history mustbebutitspretensions objectivity as mucha to are as characpartof its rhetoric are the internal teristic of of strategies thediscourses itsvarious practitioners." Deane does not deny that eventshappen,but "once an eventis characterizedas 'historical,' has enteredthe world it of historical discourse"(Deane 1994:243).The central is the issue,therefore, notwhether past is understood through seriesof interpretive a but to the strategies, rather make plainexactly basison whichthesestrategies developed. are As Brett's (1993) discussionof heritage sites if are clear suggests, readers sufficiently on the the or premise underlying ordering a display of will a narrative sequence,they be able to arrive at their own critical conclusions. Certainruraland urban landscapes play a centralrole in the heritage "recovindustry's includethe "regal" ery"of the past.Examples the landscapeoftheWestEndofLondon, chateaux and vineyards rural of France,the Mall in Washington D.C., and the sharecroppers' houses in Tuscany. These landscapes somemirthe how come to represent quintessential rorsof a culture's collective repastand their invention tourist fixes themin for consumption historical and imaginations helps ensuretheir future protection. Heritagetourismhas also been examined from pointofviewofthechanging the cultural forms associated with postmodernism and to postindustrialism. According Urry 990:82), (1 involvesa dissolving the of "postmodernism not only between highand low boundaries, but also between different cultural cultures, suchas tourism, education, forms, art, photography, television, music,sport,shoppingand

role in ades, playsan increasingly important thecontentious debateoveranchoring memoriesofthe past. The contemporary explosionofthe heritage industry Britain inpart nostalgic in is a response the of to an unease with uncertainties the present-"Hypnotised imagesof the past,we by risklosingall capacityfor creativechange' (Hewison 1987:10). In a period of economic in confidence the nation bolis decline,British a of sites steredthrough proliferation heritage which conceal past inequalities and present Whilethese criticisms heritage of destruction. tourism may underestimate popular support the naforheritage conservation, exaggerate ivetyof touristspresumably duped by the univocal and the narrative, overlook affiliations of heritage and protection environmental politics in the 1980s (Urry1990), the critique and squarelyraisesthe issues of authenticity representation whichdominate current the debate on cultural tourism (Uzzell 1989; MacCannell1992; Boniface and Fowler 1993). Heritage studiescan be broadly dividedbetween those who examinethe view thatthe heritage industry mainly mechanism is a for in reinscribing nationalist narratives thepopular imagination (Wright 1985) and those who examinethe linksbetweenheritage the culand turalchanges associatedwithpostmodernism the (Urry1990). Representing former view, Lowenthal 994:43) notesthat"heritage (1 distils the pastintoiconsof identity, bondingus with with precursors progenitors, ourown earand lierselves,and withpromised successors." For tourism seen as a formof is some, heritage that the bogus history commodifies past,distorts realhistories the more conveyedthrough conventional means (e.g., academic writing), and biasesviewsofthe pastbyselectively preevidence thatimplicity reinforces the senting In legitimacy the nation-state. Britain, of espeof and popularhistory criticism heritage cially, is widespread.Accordingto one author, the pointhas been reached where "nostalgia [is of as treated] a contemporary equivalent what Marxists used to call 'falseconsciousness' and existentialists faith'; 'bad are they[thecritics] at painsto show the deceptionsinvolvedin retrieval and projects, theways in whichthe received versionofthe past is sanitized as to so exclude any disturbing elements" (Samuel 1995:17). Whilethiscritique rightly highlights theeducational valueand importance popuof larhistories sites represented through heritage

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Where Geographyand History Meet

architecture." Postmodernism problematizes the distinction between representations and reality;it suggests that signs are all that we consume and that as touristswe do so knowingly(Baudrillard 1988; Eco 1986). Tourism is, in the words of Urry(1990), "prefiguratively" postmodern because, unlikeother elements of cultural life,ithas long privilegedthe visual,the performance, and the spectacle for popular consumption. Some features central to postmodern theorizingare thus implicit partsof the touristexperience. The postmodernist literature on tourism largely focuses on the advertising of tourist destinations-the "pic 'n mix" character of the tourist experience thatculminatesin the visitor searching through "our own pop images and stereotypes about the past which remain forever out of reach" (Jameson 1985:118). Similarly, production and management of heritage sites are linked to post-Fordist production practices and the rise of a new service class. While there are good argumentsin behalfof a relationship between tourism and postmodernism, especially in advanced capitalist economies (Lash and Urry 1987), their force diminishesin contexts where the past is hotly contested (with, at times, devastating political consequences). In the lattercases, postmodernistanalyses may divertattentionaway from vital debates over culturallegitimacy, national and historicalinterpretation identity, (Johnson 1995). The remainder of this paper examines the varied representationsof the "big house" in Irishpopular cultureas a key element in a heritage landscape. Based on the experience at StrokestownPark House, I suggest thatthe incorporationof the big house into the heritage landscape has released this icon from its confinementas a social and spatial signifier of elite culture. This thesis, of course, runs counter to the principal analyses of the relationshipsbetween heritagetourismand political identity.

553

constiThe big house in Irish historiography of land ortutesthe centerof a system rural thatreached itsheight the midin ganization eighteenth century and met itsdemise in the (Foster1988). partof the next century latter the Thissystem emanatedfrom landconfiscaplantations tions of the seventeenth-century warswhichtransformed and the Cromwellian theIrish countryside a mosaicofmedieval from Gaelic landholding structures withcompeting and feudalforms landtenure a moreorof to systemof ruralland ganized and centralized was management. apex ofthisnew regime The the landlord's house, demesne,and estatevilsome anlage (Jones Hughes1965). Although thatpeasantsubsistence thropologists suggest in of Ireeconomiespersisted manyparts rural seaboard,until land,especially thewestern on the twentieth and century (Arensberg Kimball evi1940), the bulk of the historiographical that production for dence suggests "agricultural was themarket to be found almost everywhere if in the country, forno otherreasonthanbecause everywhere money was necessaryto pay rents"(Clark1979:52). In the social and built aroundthismarket orieconomicsystem the cenentation, big house was the symbolic ter.Indeed the nature thisregime of was one tenetsof nineteenth-century of the principal via Irishpolitics.Agitation the Land League (1879) and secretsocietiesled to the impleof mentation the LandActsof1881, 1885, and 1903 whichtransferred mostof Ireland's agriland from cultural tenancyto owner-occupation. "The 1879-90 campaignsby the Land League against rents, League and the National and the property used evictions systemitself traditional techniques of social resistance" and peacefulresis(Garvin1981:78). Boycott tance were accompanied by more violent in formsof social action,particularly Dublin, Sligo,and Cork. has a Recentresearch stressed complexsoof Irishsociety cial stratification pre-Famine rather thana simpledivision among landlords and peasants (0 Grada 1988; Garvin1981). and social selectivity the The geographical of GreatFamine(1845-1849) has also been emThe Landed Estate in Ireland phasized. The consequences of the potato were not encountered across uniformly blight The great the doorsimposedan bold rooms, high order on life.There was a sweet-fresh-planed the island,nor were itsvictims drawnevenly smellfrom floors. still the Life kepta touchofcofromeach social class. The Famine'sgreatest lonialvigour;at the same time,because of the impacts were felt in western Ireland and ofeverything, boundup inthequality glory itwas (Whelan amongthe weakestclass,thecottiers of a dream. (ElizabethBowen, Bowen's Court, 1942:172) the 1986; 0 Grdda1989). In the decades after

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554

Johnson to erage in partbecause theyrelate thethorny and "Northern question" (the constitutional Ireland).This repolitical statusof Northern in has questions had newalofinterest historical appreseveralconsequences: a re-invigorated and ciationof local history spatialcontext;an analyincorporation gender into historical of perspectiveon the ses; and a more critical (Whelan histories" methodsused in "making over the tourism 1992). Inaddition, risein Irish of and theplanning tourist thelasttwenty years with engagement landscapeshas necessitated the historiographical debate.

increasingly population Ireland's rural Famine, rejectedthe estate systemand the symbolic on capitalconferred the owners and material of largeestates(Brown1985). For manythe the ecoof memory the Famineunderlined sysof nomicand moralbankruptcy a political for adequately a to temthathad failed provide For nationalist population. "an old-time starving the is It history, Famine central. version Irish of wrongthatsealed the fateof is the historical and Irethe unhappyUnion between Britain in so land: a partner uncaring time of need fromIrishmen" GrAda (0 deservedno loyalty 1989:9). Famine, unof Despitethenotoriety theIrish analyseshave been surtilrecently scholarly scarce-a factthatmay account for prisingly and literary the pervasiveness folkmemory of 1989). (0 of interpretationsthe tragedy GrAda the Although causes of the Famineare comresponsesto them plex and the institutional (Young 1994), it is subject to interpretation clearthattherewas a substantial nevertheless loss of lifeand thattherewas the removalof most periphthe weakestand geographically In eralsectionsof the Irish population. the afare thesefacts neverfar termath the Famine of The stark imfrom popularconsciousness. the sick or starving ships exporting ages of coffin poof of Irish acrossthe Atlantic, fields rotting tatoes, of landlordand his "gombeen-men" rentsfrom tenants extracting (moneylenders) all own survival, conat the expense of their to tributed an evolvingnationalimagination. in central the popularmindis the big Equally preserve.Itsrole as the house, the landlord's mostimmediate visiblesymbolof neglect and the perhaps,accountsforthe during Famine, to public'sresistance usingit as an Irishicon in of and as an ingredient definitions national As cultural identity. Lowenthal(1994:50) obare serves: "Nations unique not onlyin what feel but choose to remember inwhatthey they forcedto forget." historiographical The adventof a protracted overthelastfewdecades has debate in Ireland promptedacademic and populardiscussions to about the natureof Ireland's past. Reacting the older nationalist canon, historiographical have re-evaluated revisionist interpretations a the presumptions pounderlying nationalist liticalagenda (for an overview,see Brady 1994). The debates touched offby the revihave receivedwidespreadmediacovsionists

LiteraryRepresentations of the "Big House"

and subthe The bighouse survived Famine genreofliterasequently spawneda distinctive ture.In the big house novel,one enteredan classes.This imagined worldofthelandholding to regarded have begunwith genreis generally of the 1800 publication Maria Edgeworth's of The novelCastleRackrent. daughter a major County Longlandlordin Edgeworthstown, conwrotewhatis sometimes ford, Edgeworth colonialnovel of itstypein sideredas thefirst of Britain Ireland. and Interpreters Edgeworth's worktendto see heras a Unionist, particularly because of her father's 1992). politics(Butler to was perhapsthe first Although Edgeworth a construct novelaroundthe bighouse and its with countryside, relationship the surrounding in of the genrepersists the writings twentiethcenturynovelistssuch as ElizabethBowen, Banville, Johnston, John MollyKeane,Jennifer and David Thomson. Whatdifferentiates these ones is that fromsome of the earlier authors in theyare writing the contextof the decline ofthe big house,when itsprominence the as symboliccenterof the economic and social Unlike was beingseriously challenged. system imwhere "the English National Trust's Britain houses highlight contipeccably runcountry ownformer aristocratic nuity encouraging by to the elitecan be trusted cherishbeautyas social stability" (Lowenthal1994:47), Ireland of the to sought eradicate memory theold elite and their the landscapeand to establish social orderon a new footing. culThe rejection and declineof big-house
ers to stay on as chatelains . . . [because] only

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Where Geographyand History Meet

ture is most poignantly captured in popular fiction. Literarytheorists have recently suggested a collapse of the conventional distinction between historyand fiction.By connecting the latterwith "felthistory," the privileged position of academic historyis challenged as "even more than the scholar's researched, felt footnoted history, history refusesto be undone or forgotten" (Fairhall1993:32). Through the lens of the big-house fictionof two writers, we may recapture a sense of the spatial and ideological distance separating the owners of large estates fromthe workingpopulation who supported them, even througha period of decline. Women writersof gentrystock are prominent in the big-house genre, perhaps because of theiraccess to education and the leisure to pursue literarycareers. Yet all was not easy even forthose writers.Molly Keane wrote her firsteleven novels published between 1928 and 1952 under the pseudonym M. J.Farrell, a strategyshe designed to hide her literary side fromsportingfriendsand to enhance her likea lihood of finding mate in the countryhouses of her youth. She stopped writingfor over twenty years afterthe death of her husband, and then published three new novels in the 1980s under her real name. Keane's novels generally center on an elegant mansion located in fictionalgeographical settings such as Sorristown (Taking Chances 1929), Deer Forest (Loving and Giving 1988), or Aragon (Two Days in Aragon 1941). Amidst the ordered landscape of the big house and demesne, Keane weaves her charactersstories of love, sport, and domestic life into the prevailing political fabric. Her themes frequently center on the hunt,the domestic dogs whose role is often pivotal in the social operation of the house, the parties, and the marriages. Looking back on her lifeshe commented that "none of the owners of these houses workedthey never thoughtof working.They had their horses, a pack of hounds, shooting,fishing-it was a hard day's work just keeping up with these things" (quoted in Devlin 1985:xii). Keane's comic-tragedies sensitivelyguide the reader into the plightof a class whose social are positionand legitimacy threatened by economic collapse and whose culturalposition is jeopardized by theiralienationfroman emerging Irishstate which is severing the remaining linkswithBritain. thissettingKeane explores In

555

the fractured political alliances that emerge even among what would be considered a nationalistservant class. In her novel Two Days in Aragon, she depicts the anti-hero'sambivalence toward Irishpolitics. Foley is: Beyondfood, shelter and silence forany flying column that might for call thesethings hishouse, at he heldto a thorny neutralitythiswar between in the English, from whomhe made hismoney, and the Irish who soughtto drivethe English of out Ireland.He betrayedneither one side nor the other, maintainedtricky but a balancebetweenthe two. (Keane 1985 [1941]:45) Foley's mother Nan, Aragon's housekeeper, in her way seeks to remain inside the walls of the big house, but throughstrategiesof subtle crueltyand alacrity she undermines the power of those she works for by making herselfan indispensable part of Aragon's "furniture." Through the lives of all its would-be heroes, Keane's novel astutelycaptures the demise of Ascendancy life (Unionist landed gentry)in a of complex interplay personal and politicalrelationships that culminates in the burning of Aragon at the hands of the Irish Republican Army(hereafterIRA) and the gruesome death of Nan, the novel's central character. In one of her more recent novels, Keane's theme centers on a familygrapplingto maintain status in face of change. In Loving and Giving(1989 [1988]), Aunt Tossie, the landlady of Deer Forest,representsthe denouement of the estate system. No longer able to finance the house, its demesne and gardens, stables, and dogs, Tossie retreatsfromthe dry rot and decay of the house to a caravan located outside the dining-roomwindow of the mansion. Her sole surviving servant,Silly-Willie, waits on her every whim as he gleefullyobserves the house crumble. "Aunt Tossie noticed nothing unpleasant. She loved her caravan, so beautifullywarm, and with everythingto hand, the blue biscuit box with pussy on its lid, the whiskybottlein the po cupboard" (Keane 1989 [1988]:136). With graceful strokes Keane delineates the social and spatial distances between landowner and servant in her narration of the social geography in the house and the caravan. The writerJohn Banville also saw the big house as a rewarding setting for exploring some of the central political and cultural conflictsof nineteenth-century Ireland. Unlike Keane, Banvilleis not of gentrystock. In Birch-

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556

Johnson with innumerable big-house Irish novelgrapple sets of contradictions.

wood (1984 [1973]), the fictionalfamilymansion of a once large estate serves as the focus of this novel. Banville graduallyturns it into a "baroque madhouse" whose inhabitantsproGabriel Godgressivelymove toward insanity. kin, the novel's hero, documents the collapse of this estate through familybickering, mismanagement, and excessive drinking. The author juxtaposes this collapse with the onslaught of the Famine of the 1840s and the countryside'srancidsmells of death and rotting Banville potatoes. Using the theme of insanity, tells a tragicstoryof personal tragedyand soin cial insanity which the countrysidefallsapart as hordes of anarchic "tribes"mad withstarvation attempt to forestallan imminent death. Characterizing the decline of the estate as a genealogy of incest, of inbreedingof the body and of the mind, Banvillecontrastsgentrydeclension with the growingassertiveness of the peasant class. The gentry narrator Godkin comments on the dilemma of his class: was Of course our genteelslide towardpenury not never mentioned, in my presence,but the aroundme, evidenceof itwas everywhere silent tiles, dry the and the missing inthe crackedpaint rotthatate itsway uncheckedacross the floors and up thestairs.... The final proof, clincher, the as theysay,that Godkins the were goingtheway that of allthe gentry, is down,was the newfound of As and boldness thepeasants. mypeople know, that lucky theydid,thereis nothing willkeep the in mansion. Irish their place likea well-appointed The thraldom. first . . .But beware.It is a fragile besnigger unmendedfencewillmean the first themgrinning thegate.(1984 [1973]:49-50) to
hind your back .
.

The Decline of the "Big House"

The symbolic resonancesof the big house were not especially welcomed by the establishment the Irish of FreeStatein 1922. Many abangentry houses were eitherdestroyed, doned, or neglected:otherswere maintained could afford do to providedthattheirgentry so. During civilwar (1922-1923), immedithe severalhouseswere ately after independence, As burnedby the IRAand their sympathizers. in otherpostcolonial independenceenstates, the couragedthe desireto eradicate remnants and reminders the colonizer'scultural of landscape (Duncan 1989). In response,the Angloas Irish tended to view themselves a "beleaguered minority" (Brown 1985); many miin and gratedto the "homeland" Britain, as a of Free result Protestant the population theIrish between State declined by about one-third the 1911 and 1926 (Brown1985). Meanwhile, estatesand theirbig houses began to gentry farmers dissolveas tenant became owner-octhe cupiers.In the absence of statesupport, was serieconomicviability thesemansions of ously jeopardized.Insome cases, ownersforestalled bankruptcy reducingtheir living by in (a quarters the houses to a bare minimum satirized Keane). by strategy comically The state, meanwhile,had littletime or for copmoney bighouses.Itwas preoccupied a ingwithindependenceand establishingfirm and cultural economic basisforthe new state. Nor did it regardthe big house as a central or icon to be preserved. architectural cultural Moreover,as Dodd (1992:10) observes,"the destruction the Big House was an ideal of means through which the Free State could be symbolically seen to breakwiththe past." estimates The result was predictable. Current thatmorethan500 houses have been suggest or and onlya tinymidestroyed are in ruins, is are The nority in good repair. problem comthe restrict whichlargely pounded by statutes preservationand maintenance of national erected to and artifacts monuments buildings of the Commissioner before1700. Although Public Works and theLocalAuthorities desare ignatedas the guardiansor owners of any
"monument . .. the preservationof which is a

. an overrun garden will bring

Banvilleframesthese class relationsand antagonisms in cultural terms. Godkin's "peasand itis thisconjunction ants" are also the Irish, of class and national identity that runs through Banville'snovel. A colonial frameworkof colonizer and native thus structuresmany of the plots in big-house novels and bringsthem into relation with South American creole writing. These creole writers"were obliged to grapple with the blatant neocolonialist greed of the Europeans they so admired, and with the claims for equality of the subordinated indigepowerful conservative forces which, though such opposed favoring independence, changes as freetrade, abolition,secular education, or even republicanism itself" (Pratt authorsof the 1992:175). As withthese writers,
nous.
. .

. Within creole ranks, liberals faced

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Where Geographyand History Meet matter national of importance reasonofhisby torical, artistic aror architectural, traditional, interest" of chaeological (Commissioner Public Works 1936:15), "importance" been rehas for served,forthe mostpart, prehistoric, Early and Christian, Medievalsites.The prevalence of these sitesas tourist destinations thereis, fore, unintended an consequence ofthe remit of the Commissioners PublicWorks(Mulof lane 1994). Although travel and travel to on writings Irelandhave a longhistory, inthe pastthree only decades has tourism exenjoyed significant pansion (O'Connor 1993). In 1992 tourism contributed estimated percentof gross an 7.1 national product, is thusan increasingly it important sectorof the Irish economy (Gillmor of in 1994). In terms growth tourism earnings Ireland recordedthe amongOECD countries, highest annual increase since 1980 (The Economist of 1995). Whilethepromotion tourismis underthe auspices of the stateagency, Bord Fjilte,many of the images in Ireland's promotional literature resemblecolonialconstructions (O'Connor 1993). By focusingon "empty space," an uninhabited territory ready for tourist and viewof occupation, a non-linear "in is time,Ireland presented a way whichofferspeople an escape from the pressuresof to modernity the simplicity authenticity and of the pre-modern. Tourist has imagery been inin strumental constructing Ireland the Irish and people as otherto the modernindustrial metropolitan centres"(O'Connor 1993:76). Surveysoftourist activity indicate that32 percent visited housesand castles, and thispattern has made thempriorities "historical for interpretation"by the state'stourism planning policies (O'Connor 1993). Our example of Strokeshad to the town,however, little do with state's official preservation policy. Strokestown, County Roscommon representsthoseestates locatedon marginal agricultural landwestofthe river Shannon(Figure 1). Itis 90 miles from situated the main on Dublin, thoroughfare between Dublin and Sligo (N5) town. The nearestsignificant urbancenteris fourteen miles away. Strokestown Longford, Park was built landsgranted the1650s to in on in Nicholas Mahon,a soldier Cromwell's army, in forhis efforts the colonialcampaignin Ireland.The house itself built the 1740s in was in the Palladianstyle under the guidance of ThomasMahon MP. The wingsadjoining the

557

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ParkHouse. This house is Figure1. Strokestown locatedwest of the river Shannonin CountyRoscommon.Itis ninety milesfrom on situated Dublin, the mainroad betweenSligotown and the capital prtn hose includingt Rusoog ose
city.

County Wicklowand Leinster ousethe oundr-e

central blockare thought have been added to Richard Castle. (He was also by the architect for responsible building number otherima of houses including House, portant Russborough and Wicklow, Leinster House,thecurCounty rent ParliamentHouse, in central Dublin
[O'Brien and Guinness 1992]). By the beginwere the most significant gentryfamilyin the area with an estate exceeding 30,000 acres.

cer the ningof the nineteeng ntury, Mahons

grandson Maurice Mahon MP was offeredand accepted a peerage for his support of the Act of Union (1800). He subsequently was known as the first Baron Hartlandof Strokestown. As with the establishmentof many large estates in Ireland,the gentry transformed setthe tlement pattern through the development of planned estate villages. The extent of planning

Strokestown occupied first thus rank(by size) estates. 1800, NicholasMahon's In amongIrish

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558

Johnson merlandlords, localgeography, the activiand tiesofthehouse'sadministrator. Moreover, the restoration seems to be fairly representative of in a way of lifeonce prevalent ruralIreland. Indeed, as one commentator suggested, has "the most extraordinarything about Strokestown House,thepost-Cromwellian pile withsundry additions since, was its ordinariness" (Myers1992:12). The history the house's acquisition of and as subsequent development a tourist attraction are intimately connectedwith history the the of owned the house. Alfamily who originally are thoughsome commentators critical the of privatization heritagesites (Urry1990), of Strokestown's private ownership and managein mentofthe sitehave been instrumentalthe None formulation its radicalinterpretation. of oftheusuallaments aboutpostcolonial tourism over areas of a country the "to policiesgiving pleasureofforeigners" whileappealing "the to rhetoric development" of (Perez 1973:474) or distorting "reality, obliging people to produce themselves for touristconsumption"(Hall 1991) seem to applyto Strokestown. has Nor it been designed"with eye on the foreign an (or tourist)market"(Gibbons 1986:10). In the Strokestown, house has developed indeof tourism pendently national policiesand discourses on them.This independencehas ena abled the owners to construct more challengingsite,one thatplaces its emphasison Irish attracting people to thissite.Strokestown was designedto appeal to localsand nationals, and ithas succeeded as itsaudience is largely are an Irishone (80 percentof the tourists class backgrounds Irish),albeit of particular and Rogoff (Sherman 1994). Site Contextand Originsof the Strokestown *Thehouse remainedin the hands of Olive Hales Pakenham Mahon,a descendentof the 1979. Oclandlords the estate,until of original of the ambivalent cupying typically position the she between London, Irishgentry, gravitated the colonialcultural and her estatein center, she confinedher westernIreland.In Ireland, interactions the gentry to class. Indeed,aside in fromthe serviceclass working the house and on the estate,local people rarely any had contactwiththe occupantsof the big house. Althoughthe currenthouse administrator's

varied, however. At Strokestown,the second Baron Hartlandlaid out the main streetof the settlement.The town itselfis an example of coherent and ordered planning consisting of "a variety of formal elements, including orthogonal or linear street plans, squares, crescents, architecturally important buildings treatedas visual foci and processional axial vistas" (Proudfoot 1993:236). The exceptionally wide main street underlines the principle of linearity, withthe Anglicanchurch at the western end of the town and the Georgian Gothic the entriplearch at the eastern end forming trance to Strokestown Park House (Figure 2). While the house serves as a center for the estate's public display,the morphology of the demesne and town constitutethe hem forthe discussion of Stroketown'spast.

ParkHouse Strokestown
If conservation thesehousesareto be saved,their willhave to be concernedwithmuchmorethan of The the fabric the building their and contents. will conservation have to concernitself primarily an of withthe perception the places through exaspectsof their own and naploration various of tional history. (Dodd 1992:11) In theiranalysisof museum culture,Sherman and Rogoff (1994) suggest four conceptual keystones in the arch of museum practicesand museums are comprised of a sepolitics.First, ries of objects classified and ordered in a sequence which offersmeaning to the display. Second, these sequences of objects are woven into an externaldiscursive context by a narrative which utilizesand explores concepts such as "nation," "local culture," or "class relationships." Third, this context of representation the serves a specified public by structuring exhibitso as to disclose a narrative.Fourth,the audience's response to the display becomes, in turn,an integralpart of the museum's discourse. These conceptual processes are evident in Strokestown,hence I use them in describingthis heritagesite. When StrokestownPark House was opened to the public in 1987, it offereda radical criestate system. tique of the nineteenth-century The site incorporated subaltern classes as active participantsin the estate's economic and social system.Strokestowntellsthe storyof the interconnectionsbetween private capital, for-

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Where Geographyand History Meet

559

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Figure 2. An 1837 six-inch-to-one-mile Ordnance Survey map of Strokestown and the estate. The house is located east of the town about one hundred yards fromthe main streetof Strokestown.The map reveals the cruciform design of the town and the expansive main street.The Protestant church is located at the western end ofthe town on the main thoroughfare, while the Georgian Gothic triplearch gateway to the house is located at the eastern end of the main street.The parkland around the house conveys a sense of the naturalistic style of landscape planningpopular among the Irishgentry.

mother "had been raisedinthearea,[she]had neverseen it. Nobody in the town had. Nobodyhad gotpastthe gates"(Dodd quoted in Myers 1992:12). Olive's firsthusband was in killed the GreatWar in 1914, and the genderedinheritance ofthe day necessitated laws her return to the ancestral home in

Strokestown where she remaineduntil 1981. Despitethe economicdeclineof Strokestown itsoccupantssought maintain veneerof to the and from surroundthe gentility separateness ing community. "Strokestown house was socially and historicallysealed container" a (Myers 1992:12). Withher children educated and

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560

Johnson in the that lematic nature history Ireland, fact of nothing we don't have an imperial tradition, has ever been safe or consignedto the past" (Dodd 1993). Thisinsight came as the popular in interest historical questionswas peakingin in Ireland reflected themediaand academic (as The debate on revisionist historiography). ultimate effect the making Anne Devlin at of of Strokestown that"itshowed thata house was like thiswhich had alwaysmeantsomething be specificin the past could actually used to elaborateothertheories otherversions[of or step history]" (Dodd 1993). Itwas thena short facility reprefor to the creationof a cultural in in situated a specific milieu, senting histories thiscase a westernIrish countyremotefrom urbancenters. Sequencingthe Narrative focus Toursof stately homes conventionally on thedesignand architecture the house,a of of pottedfamily history the owners,some anecdotal information about the servantclass, and detailson the interior designand furnishfrom presented ingsof the house. Frequently the pointof view ofthe ruling class,the preservation these houses is encouragedas an of important enduring and symbolof the greatness of a nation'spast and the accumulated wealth of its most successful landowners in (Hobsbawm and Ranger1983). In Britain, house and itsestateare the particular, country to landgenerally seen as intrinsic the English identity. Often, scape and Englishhistorical house door-along with however, "thecountry itself-is kept firmly the countryside shut," even in properties held under the National Trust (Lowenthal 1991:220). is The house at Strokestown, contrast, by a to presented the publicthrough guidedtour 3). lasting about 45 minutes (Figure According to the house administrator, "touris structhe turedto use the house as a vehicleto explain and and social history, not about furniture interiors thattoo is impornecessarily although tant" (Dodd 1993). While Urry (1990:112) beclaims that "heritage is history distorted on cause ofthe predominant emphasis visualiwithan array of visitors zation,on presenting (either"real" or artifacts, including buildings and to "manufactured"), then trying visualize the patterns life wouldhave emergedin of that

living England in and Olive outliving secher ond husband, she decided to auction her house and move to England. where stately mansionshave UnlikeBritain been acquired by the state or independent trusts the country's for heritage industry (Urry 1990; Wright 1985), the Irish stateexpressed in A no interest buying Strokestown. localbusito nessman seeking expandhistrucking enterprise boughtthe house and the remaining acres of land in 1979. Borrowthreehundred to the ingheavily securethe property, buyer's initial intention to expandhisbusiness;but was in he changed course afterdiscovering the that prohouse extensivearchivalmaterials on of videddetails themanagement theestate, the and after observespecially during Famine ingthe destruction otherbig houses in the of area. Havingdecided to preservethe house, he notedthat"theattitude to wipe them was offthe face of the earth.There would be as little ofthemas therewas ofthe poor cotleft tierswho were wiped out in the Famineand after (Jim it" Callery quoted inO'Toole 1994:1). the Although purchaseof the estate was an financial further enormous investment, Callery of securedthecontents the house subsequent the to Olive'sdeath,and he set intrain extensive repairwork necessaryto maintain the house.The fact that house soaksup money the to prompted the administrator speculatethat "ifthey[the owners]had the benefit what of they know now, then,theywould probably have neverembarkedon it [the preservation project]but at the same timeit'shere and it's credit" largely their to (Dodd inBowman 1993). The task of preserving house restedin the the handsofthe house's current administrator in LukeDodd. Trained arthistory museum and his with curatorship, relationship thehouse has role and playedan important initspreservation that thetypeofpresentation offered. Knowing for House had been the setting Strokestown the filmAnne Devlin and thatthisfilmhad some revenue theownersofthe for generated to house (notto mention helping bring Dodd to the house), Dodd realizedthat film-making were tailor-made the house. He for techniques whichis carnotedthat Anne Devlin "is a film riednot by languagebut by visualmetaphors of Anne Devlin and forthe lastthird the film doesn'tspeak at all"(Dodd 1993). The producat stimulated an tion of thisfilm Strokestown and "the in interest history ithighlighted prob-

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WhereGeography History and Meet

561

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unitesthe visualand the them,"Strokestown verbalin a meaningful narrative pastexperiof ences. Thisis made possiblefirst the availby ability detailedrecordson the house's manof and agement second bytheinternal geography of the house itself. These provide the substanceforthe narrative of the house. tour The tourvisits mainreception the roomsof the house, the first-floor quarters living (adult and children), and the kitchen. Although the toursequence is dictated largely the archiby tecture thehouse and thesiting particular of of objects, it is also arrangedaccordingto the typeof history the house seeks to retell. that The narrative sequence ofa typical divides tour intofourparts:1) economic and architectural history the early of estate;2) the house during theFamine years;3) genderrelations famand ily history; 4) socialrelations and betweengenand servant classes. try The tour begins with a recounting the of early acquisitionand architectural developmentof the house. References the designs to of the demesne and the estate village of with Strokestown, itsexceptionally wide main

street, serve to highlight family's the material and symbolic dominanceof the surrounding In countryside. the mainreception room and ballroom, guides discuss the earlyeconomic history the estate,the injectionof "new of money"intothe estatein the 1800s, and the pastimes and entertainmentthe landlords of (a gramophone recordis played).The spatial divisionof labor between landlord and servant classes is highlighted a through discussionof theunderground passageways built disguise to the routes takenby servants theadministrain tionoftheir dutiesin the house and demesne. In the studyroom of the house, guides offer an extensive discussion of the role of Strokestown House in Roscommon during the timeof Famine. Thanksto the largevolumeof archival papersdealingwiththisperiod(some displayedin glass cabinets),the tour reconstructs roleofthelandlord the Denis Mahon in the administration his estate duringthese of yearsand talliesup the effects the Famine of which shrunk the estate's populationof approximately 11,000 by about 88 percent. This section of the tour presentsthe widespread

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562

Johnson causes and consequences of contemporary worldhunger. Thisis themostemotive section of the tour,but it is emotioncarriedby languagerather thanbyvisual representation. Visiin torsinterested a visual of analysis thisperiod in localand national history must awaitthevisit to the Famine Museumlocatedadjacentto the house in the stableyards. Inthe upperfloors the house,comprising of the family bedrooms,children's schoolroom, and playroom,the narrative shiftsto the themesof genderrelations amongthe gentry, and parent-child relationships, the spaces ocThis cupied bychildren. sectionofthetourhas a lighter tone and objects (e.g., four-poster Yet beds) move intothe foreground. even in thissection,objects are used to highlight the social as well as the personalhistory the of estate.There is, forinstance, discussionof a in the roles of the governess/tutor the social of relations a mansion thistype. of The finalsection of the tour is set in the roomand the galleried kitchen. dining Emphasis shifts again,thistimeto the roles of the servant class. The spatialand social distances between the landlords are and servants reinforced a of through discussion thearchitectural of spaces and the practices each group.The the galleried kitchen, onlyremaining galleried in kitchen the country (Figure serves as a 4), for social poignantmetaphor the hierarchical relations cultivated through system dothe of mesticmanagement. The gallery enabled the landlord'sfamily remain outside of the to as spaces used by the staff, forexample,so "theladyofthe manorcould throw down the the day's menuto her cook without suffering of area" indignity havingto entera working (Eagleton 1994:42).The adjoining underground also ensuredtheinvisibilitythe of passageways servant class as theycarried their out dodaily mestic duties.Ironically,is theveryexistence it of these passagewaysthatenable visitors to visualize those people whom the landlords preferredto hide from public view. The kitchenwas the servantclass's centraldeto but mesne,linked the house geographically it separatedfrom socially. for Designing a Public House differs from Strokestown otherheribecause the tagecentersin severalways.First,

impactsof death and emigration experienced in Strokestown. "Formanythousands Rosof commonpeople, allthatremains their of lives, theirsweat and theirtravailis Strokestown House. Theylivedincabinsand other thanthe house theyhelped to make possible,all trace 1992:12). ofthemis gone from history" (Myers on tourism Much of the literature heritage of focuseson the issueoftheauthenticity past narratives the tendency popularhistoand for riesto sanitizethe pastand ignore importhe tantgeographical contextsin which histories the take place. In Strokestown, tournarrative momentin presentsthe Famineas a critical is nineteenth-century history, one that Irish but in of firmly contextualized the local history an Strokestown, area of westernIrelandseThe verely affected thepotatoblight. guides by in tell of the estate'sfinancial difficulties the 1840s (having accrued largedebts because of to rentarrears)and the landlord's strategies alleviate debt.Butthetourcoversthedebt this the burdenof tenants, noting assistedemigration scheme that was devised by Strokestown's land agentsto nullify tenantdebts. In thisscheme the estateassistedtenants unable in to paytheir rents the during Famine securing to transportationCanada inexchangeforrelintheir then leases.The narrative moves quishing on to the emigration itself and the appalling mortality on theships(at timesas highas rates At 70 percent). whichpointlisteners learnof theCanadiangovernment's to complaints London aboutflooding Canada's shoreswith poor, At sick,and destitute emigrants. thisjuncture in the narrative, local, national, and international interwoven. are is Equally impressive the of of tour'shandling the contestednature hisIn toricalinterpretation. the discussionof the in landlord's assassination 1847, the guidesofferseveral different documentedversionsof hisdeath.Thiscase amplifies equivocalnathe tureof evidence,and itrevealshow interpreIt tationmay be colored by systems belief. of also shows how eventsmaytranscend scales. The assassination, which was widely publiand cized inthe local,Irish, British press,conthe when many nectedthe localwith national, landlords for abandoned fearing theirsafety in their estatesforlife England. Indeedthe Mafor hons themselves abandoned Strokestown aboutforty years,returning in the 1890s. only The tour,in addition, connectsthe Faminein Roscommoninto broaderdebates about the

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Meet Where Geographyand History

563

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- ----------Figure 4. Today's galleried kitchen in Strokestown Park House. The kitchen is located in the north wing

gallery whichallowedthe ladyof the house to delivera day's house.It retains original its balustrated menu~~~~~~~~~~~~ ypriso fLk od erne without ~ haigtOietyetrtesaeo ~ ~ ~ ~ hV oetckthnsaf Strokestown House.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~............. Park

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occupied,itis notpresented house is currently as exclusively a windowon the past.Itis not, dein in otherwords,preserved the minutest are tail.Objects pastand present bothon dis(albeitmanicured) play,and the disorganized the seems to underscore conarray material of The nature the presentation. tourists of tingent In noticed thisdifference. thatI interviewed obwhich I visited," "otherhouses in Ireland and on muchmoreconcentration architecture furniture not so much on social life.Aland thoughthese otherhouses were in a better the state of restoration, tour in Strokestown the In was moreinteresting."factitis precisely and used appearance of the furniture interior thatmakes it seem as thoughwe are fabrics viewing the house throughcontemporary eyes. Thatwas the case fora Dublinwoman and the (1993) who visited house on a day-trip who had visitedmanyotherhouses open to
served one Englishwoman (1993), "there was

timewe were the public."Thiswas the first was of able to sense the atmosphere whatlife like really insucha house.Thiswas due inlarge by lecture theguide."And to part theexcellent success. thatmaybe the keyto Stroketown's As Luke Dodd has emphasized, "everyone tour...." who does a tourheredoes a different as The people hired guides"arenotjustschool a are they people who come with speleavers, in reason" cific interest the place forwhatever (Dodd 1993). Thuswhileguidesare givena list be tours, of issuesthatmight covered in their Nor scripted. is every is thedelivery notheavily the one. When training guides, detaila critical them who the Dodd doesn't "bothertelling beare paintings, paintings by,the allegorical this cause mostpeople who visit house are not I in interested that"(Dodd 1993). The visitors side ofthe the spoketo wereawarethat "other story" was part of the exposition in the interpreted but Strokestown, notallvisitors

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564

Johnson notleastthat industry this producesan inspired historical imagination and novel interpretive strategies. Critiques the heritage of industry's representations the past as little of morethan bogus history too often are overdrawn, to not mentionoverwrought. They ignorecases in which the past is provocatively explored through heritage a landscapewithout diminishingitspopularappeal. They should not have ignored Ireland. There,in the contextof unresolved historical that questions (including oftheIrish stateitself), debates over how we interpret have history a flourished. bighouse is notmerely bogus The symbolic center, rather is a centerfilled but it withcontestedmeanings. The representation of the past at Strokestown ParkHouse illustrateshow this controversial elementof the Irishlandscape can be intelligently incorporatedintopopularunderstandings the past. of This itaccomplishesby situating interprethe in tation the local spatial context, connectby ing itto widerregional, national, and internaIn tionalgeographies. the Irishcase, at least, one key elementin the heritage landscapeof than an expanding tourism enabled rather has constrained complex and nuanced rending a of the Irishpast. Not all heritage landscapes renneed be bogus, sanitized, and hypnotic of derings an invented past. Acknowledgments
from Thisresearch was supported a grant the by I gratefully Nuffield Foundation. the acknowledge coPark of at operation LukeDodd, thestaff Strokestown who took timeto speak to House, and the visitors me. Forpermission quote material to here,I am infrom Bandebtedto Reed Booksforquotation John from ville'sBirchwood, ViragoPressforquotations Molly Kean's Two Days in Aragon, and Elizabeth Bowen'sBowen's Court, and Seckerand Warburgh from for quotation MollyKeane'sLoving and Giving.

tour in the same way. An Irishdoctor noted thatother houses he had visited were "not as correct" in their narrativeand they politically presented a "more glossy magazine" version was of the past (Johnson1993). A female visitor a bit more defensive: the I felt to perhapsin attempting highlight plight so, people,and rightly you[owners oftheordinary of picture of the house] painteda verynegative I This but thisfamily. is yourbrief,think, all aristocratsfrom Russiato Francehad no consideration At we forthe peasants. leastin Ireland had some who were decent, for instanceCharles Stuart 1993) Parnell. (Johnson Thus while Strokestown's radical perspective on the past is quite explicit,the spiritof the enables touriststo make their interpretations own critical judgments. A second feature that differentiates apStrokestown from the "museumrification" is proach to restoration the absence of barriers withinthe rooms of the house. There are no rope barriers or warning signs; visitors can freely touch objects duringthe tour.Thus while the house contains many items of high monetaryvalue, these are not displayed in a way that the distances them from the viewer. Similarly site differs from many big houses which are approached through the back door or some the discreet entrance thatavoids disturbing formalism of the facade. In Strokestown,visitors enter the house throughthe main frontdoor. the This avoids "perpetuating class divisionthat [the house] was made to represent" (Dodd 1993). The public is encouraged to thinkof the house as a partof theirpast, one in which their ancestors played an active role. the tour vocabulary eschews an elite Finally referenceto the miperspective by minimizing In or nutia of Palladian architecture portraiture. these novel ways the unscripted character of the guides' narrativesunfolds a story of the social and culturalancestry of a public which the house seeks to attract.

Conclusion
Geographers are increasingly concerned withthe representationsof landscapes (Barnes and Duncan 1991) and, more specifically,in the metaphor of landscape-as-text (Duncan and Ley 1993). That said, geographers have paid scant attention to heritage landscapes. This oversight is curious for several reasons,

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Submitted 5/95; Revised 11/95, 12/95; Accepted 1/96.

and History Meet: Heritage Tourism the Big and Johnson, NualaC. 1996. Where Geography
House in Ireland.Annals of the Association of American Geographers 86(3):551-566. Abstract.

Withtourist sourceof employment the end ofthe by activity expectedto become the largest of and with millenium, paperexaminesheritage this tourism, framing history, itsrelationship its industry narratives national of identity. Challenging analyseswhich suggestthatthe heritage in a an merely presents sanitizedor bogus versionof the past,I present instance whichan and of historical is presented a popularaudiencein a provocative nuancedrendering icon to element Ireland's of past-thebighouse or the past.Focusing one particularly on controversial imagination through literature, stately home-thispapercharts incorporation thehistorical its into the Park as icon through exampleofStrokestown House analyzesitsrepresentation a heritage inCounty into landscape Roscommon, argues thebighouse'sincorporation theheritage and that as signifier eliteculture. situating of By has releaseditfrom confinement a socialand spatial its and connecting to widerregional, it of context the interpretationthe house in the localspatial understandings national, international and geographies, house has helpedadvancepopular this national ofthepast.Key Words: interpretive strategies, Ireland, heritage industry, historiography, Park identity, Strokestown House. BT7 1NN, Northern School of Geosciences, Queen's University, Belfast Correspondence: Ireland.

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