An ample window into how others saw us

ALAN O'RIORDANreviews Travellers' Accounts as Source Material for Irish HistoriansBy CJ Woods Four Courts Press, 256pp; €24.95

'I WISH that God, the gift he gie us/ To see ourselves as others see us," wrote Robert Burns. In the past few years, Irish publishers have been the God of the Scottish poet's line and bestowed on historians and common readers alike colourful and valuable collections of early newspaper articles, letters, diary entries and other occasional literature written on journeys through Ireland by such travellers as William Thackeray, George Boole, Alexis de Tocqueville, William Wordsworth and dozens of literary-minded gentleman tourists. One thinks of Cornelius Kelly's excellent Grand Tour series, and Glenn Hooper's Travel Writing and Ireland, 1760-1860and his The Tourist's Gaze.

If such texts are worthy destinations for the wandering reader, CJ Woods casts himself as the friendly local on the roadside pointing us in the right direction. His collection of annotated sources signposts all manner of locations that, unlike Samuel Johnson’s Giant’s Causeway, are both worth seeing and worth going to see.

For each of the 209 entries here, Woods lists the purpose, dates and itineraries of the traveller. He also briefly outlines the content: this is the work’s chief value, for its labour-saving benefits but also because it is rare not to be struck by the thought “that sounds interesting”.

Take for example his entry for Charles de Montalembert, a 19th century nobleman whose tour took in dinner with Lady Morgan, a stay at Killruddery House and a visit to Derrynane where he finds Daniel O’Connell’s house besieged by 150 peasants wanting him to settle their disputes. Sent off to the source by Woods is to be rewarded by what he doesn’t show us: the company of the traveller in his own words. In this case we find a man who can exhibit Augustan restraint and Romantic enthusiasm, who mixes practical observations with impressions of delight. Cork, he writes, “is a very beautiful city . . . With no notable buildings”. Yet, the “upper-class women are quite charming: never, not even in Brussels or Dublin, have I encountered any more shapely”. Add in Thackeray’s discovery of ragged boys lolling over the quay balustrade discussing Ptolemy and 19th century Cork is truly flattered.

The value of travellers’ accounts is spelled out in the fine introduction: written on or near the occasions they describe both temporally and physically, they touch on all aspects of human activity; they are useful to a wide field of research: topographical, architectural, social, cultural, political and more. Woods does give one important warning, though: “travellers could be as blinkered as the horses drawing their coaches”, especially since they were almost always drawn from the upper classes. But this is true of all historical source material: quite simply, spalpeens didn’t take notes; also, variety offers a solution of sorts, with the likes of Asenath Nicholson, who travelled on foot in the winter of 1844-1845, giving first-hand experiences of rural poverty.

Another possible drawback is that travellers’ accounts are by definition anecdotal. But it is the job of the historian to build arguments from such material and, as Woods demonstrates here, the number of accounts is so large as to present ample opportunity. This book offers a window into the wider repertory of Irish travel accounts, and a validation of the author’s belief that proper annotation is the key to making such a repertory useful to researchers.

Alan O’Riordan is a journalist