Look us over for yourselves, Longford tells tourists

"They're really very hard to stomach," says Mr Seamus Kenny, manager of Ardagh's Heritage Centre, of the latest dismissive guidebook reviews of his home county, Longford.

"Even after all the prestigious awards and being named Europe's top environmental town, we're still being ignored." His exasperation is shared by all in the tourism industry in Longford. Despite years of effort promoting the county and its attractions, it remains spurned by the international guidebooks.

The most recent reviews vary from Lonely Planet, which describes Longford town as "of little interest to the tourist", to The Rough Guide, which says bluntly: "As far as tourism goes, the county is a desert, the half-hearted attempts to promote Goldsmith Country notwithstanding".

Some guidebooks merely ignore the area - guidebooks like Eyewitness which, in 384 pages, allots a single sentence to Ardagh. Let's Go Ireland 1998 boasts that it didn't forget "forlorn Co Longford", only to summarise dismissively: "It's mostly harmless".

Fodor's Up Close guide briefly mentions the new Corlea Trackway Exhibition Centre with its "reasonably captivating" audiovisuals. But in the latest edition of The Irish Bed and Breakfast Book, detailing country and tourist homes, farms, inns and guesthouses all over Ireland, Longford is the only county not to receive a listing.

"We can't seem to win," says Mr Kenny. "We know we don't have the same kind of attractions as Connemara or the south-west, but we don't get recognition for what we have."

He says the county has never been more attractive for visitors, with the launch over the past few years of a number of interpretative centres and the restoration of many historical sites. Moreover, Ardagh became in February only the second Irish winner of the British Airways European "Tourism for Tomorrow" award, following in the footsteps of Temple Bar in 1994.

Ironically, he says, Ardagh "is better known outside Ireland than within", with more than half the estimated 15,000 annual visitors to the town coming from abroad. Since the latest European award win, the town was featured on the ITV holiday show, Wish You Were Here, and has attracted a number of British tour operators. "We're very hopeful there will be an abundance of English coaches coming to Ardagh for the first time this summer," says Mr Kenny.

Mr Paddy O'Donnell, chairman of Longford County Tourism, says people in the area are "very resentful" about the guidebooks' comments. He says the problem is essentially one of information. As a result the tourism body is seeking funding for a full-time marketing officer for the county.

"There has been an urgent need for a co-ordinated marketing effort for Longford for some years. We are not Killarney or Bundoran. We have our own attractions in the quietness and the people. That is the type of image we want to market."

A frequent complaint among people in tourism in the county is how Longford is promoted under Midlands-East Tourism, which covers an area which includes parts of the east coast like Wicklow.

"The midlands should be separated and marketed as a distinct area," says Matt Farrell, chairman of the Edgeworthstown Development Committee. "At the moment we're competing against south Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow to be promoted within Midlands-East Tourism."

However, John Brown, senior press officer with Bord Failte, says redrawing regional tourism authority boundaries would make little difference to Longford's fortunes.

"People here tend to get hung up on what's happening in a particular county or region but visitors don't look at Ireland in terms of regions beyond, perhaps, the west and Dublin. They look at their holiday in terms of `where will I play golf?' or `where can I find a luxury hotel?' Our emphasis then is on encouraging each trade to group together and market a particular activity or product, whether it's B&Bs, hotels, golf clubs, or some other specialist activity."

He says the existing regional tourism authority boundaries were aimed at maximising the amount of EU funding which would be available for tourism projects "and Longford has benefited significantly from that situation". Many other counties were grouped in seemingly inappropriate regions, including Monaghan and Cavan in the north-west, "but no one seems to be crying up there about this."

Alan Mitchell, secretary of the Longford Chamber of Commerce, agrees there is little point in blaming the regional tourism authority and says "the onus is on everyone to remedy the situation".

One proposed initiative being examined by Longford County Tourism is a new co-ordinated marketing drive centred on the county's literary heritage. At present, two of Longford's main annual attractions - the Oliver Goldsmith summer school in June near Pallas, and the Maria Edgeworth weekend in March - are promoted and publicised separately.

John O'Donnell, secretary of the Goldsmith summer school organising committee, says: "There is already a steady stream of tourists who come all year round to trace the area's literary traditions. There could be much greater numbers with a more co-ordinated effort."

Next year offers a significant opportunity for the county as it marks the 150th anniversary of Maria Edgeworth's death. She is probably best known for her novel, Castle Rackrent. There are plans for a new arts and literary centre in Edgeworthstown, where the author grew up with her father, the inventor and surveyor Richard Lovell Edgeworth.

Eleven family portrait reproductions have been acquired for the project, but lack of money is preventing its completion.

Other signs of movement include the erection of a new Goldsmith monument in Ballymahon, to be unveiled at the summer school next year, and plans for expanding the Abbeyshrule airstrip, which runs a training centre and a popular airshow each August.

Also, Longford guesthouse-owners recently published a number of new brochures highlighting accommodation in the county. But Mary Smith, who owns Tober Phelim House in Granard, and represents farmhouses in Longford County Tourism, said they have had problems getting certain tourist offices throughout the State to accept the brochures.

Another major tourism opportunity which has been identified is the bicentenary of the Battle of Ballinamuck. A week of events, including a re-enactment of the battle, is being planned for September.