The promoters of tourist traffic in this country certainly deserve congratulation. It is quite clear to all of us that hotels have greatly improved, that entertainments for tourists have greatly improved, and that transport and tours have greatly improved. As Senator McGuire has just said, the local authorities have played a good part in this. Our roads are excellent. It is a very great charm to a visitor from England or from abroad to be able to drive on first-rate roads with hardly another car in sight for miles. This, I know, is bringing many people from England into the country. The local authorities are also providing better camping sites and better parking places. All this is helping the effort, and it all adds up. Credit is also due to shopkeepers and private citizens who are making an effort to brighten the look of our streets and roads.
As the Minister said, the tourist market in Europe is highly competitive. It happened, within the past few months, that I travelled through some 12 European countries on two cruises —as a lecturer on an American cruise and a British cruise. It gave me an opportunity of studying tourist conditions abroad. So with a view to this kind of Bill in the House, I made some notes. I should like to emphasise that many of these countries are small countries like our own. I do not think there is much use in comparing ourselves, in terms of tourist traffic, with France, Germany, Russia, and such like. We simply have not the resources. I was lucky enough to see places like the Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Greece and the youngest of our European Republics, Cyprus. They afford a pretty fair criterion for judging the possibilities in Ireland and our standards here at present.
One contrast, of course, strikes you immediately. We have the grave handicap of our climate, or perhaps I should say our summer climate. It is worth emphasising this qualification, for in fact I seriously believe that the Tourist Board might make something of our winter climate, because our rainfall in November, December and January is no worse than that of Athens, and the temperature in the same months is very much higher than Paris or Madrid. It might be worthwhile for Bord Fáilte to bring out a slogan "Come to Ireland in the Winter, too." In fact we can promise better climatic conditions in November, December and January than most countries in Europe, some of the best in the whole northern hemisphere.
Unhappily, as we know from recent experience, July appears to be one of our wettest and cloudiest months. We have to face that. And Bord Fáilte will have to face it one way or another, for I see advertisements in the foreign papers of glorious sunny beaches in the summer in Ireland. People come, and generally they do not get that weather in July. There should be some realism in facing up to our climatic conditions and to the fact that our climate is our worst disadvantage.
Let me now consider briefly our three main advantages and what we can make of them. The first is our scenery. I have seen a good many countries in Europe now, and I am convinced that Irish scenery is unsurpassed for colour and outline in any country in Europe, in its own particular idiom and its own particular way. We can be quite certain that here we have a tremendous asset. The second advantage is one about which tourists have again and again spoken to me, the temperament of our people. We are naturally friendly to strangers. Sometimes it is said that we are friendlier to strangers than to ourselves, but that is an exaggeration. We naturally respond to strangers. That makes a great impression on people. You will not get that in Britain or, on the whole, in the North of Ireland, or in France, or Northern Germany. You meet it in Southern Germany. It is something that immediately strikes the stranger and the tourist. With it there is the relaxed tempo of the country, although I am reluctant to emphasise this before the Minister for Industry and Commerce. This easy-going temperament, taking things easy, probably hits against our industry and our production. But it has a very definite compensation. Only last week, I was talking to two very intelligent tourists from America, the kind of people who would send others here. What they liked most of all is our easy way, the lack of strain or rush. If sometimes the Minister for Industry and Commerce is sad about our production figures, he can remember that something is coming into the country and will come in more and more if we can only preserve that relaxed temperament, together with hard work.
Our third advantage is what I want to stress most of all. Senator McGuire has very rightly said something about it already. In this country, as in countries like Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and Greece, we have immense historical and intellectual treasures. Those are what we should develop now, because, as I see it, there is a change in fashion in what tourists want to find in the countries they visit. It used be the custom just to rhapsodise about the mountains and the sea, and to buy some souvenirs. But there is a higher standard of education in America and throughout Europe now, and people want something more than just scenery and souvenirs and good food. As Senator McGuire put it so clearly, the boatman wants something towards which to row, something about which he can tell a story when he takes you across the lake.
I feel that in this country we could do a good deal more in developing interest in the historical side. We have every period of history represented. We have a herioc age with Cuchulain and Finn, and a Patrician age with its early Christianity. We have the age of the Norsemen which I think would be a very considerable attraction to Scandinavians through a publicity campaign on the lines "Come and see your old capital city, Dublin," or in similar terms. Such names as MacOstrich, the son of Osric, and MacAuliffe, the son of Olaf, show our association with the Norsemen. Scandinavians would find many such things of great historical interest to them. The French might be interested in coming to see what the Normans did in this country. In other words, I suggest that the time has come when Bord Fáilte should gradually move towards a more intellectual and a more historical approach in their publicity. That is what tourists are going to want more and more in the future.
If we want to develop that kind of historical tourism, what can we best do? Briefly, I think it depends on two things, on places and people. We have already developed a few of our historical places. We have sites like New Grange and Glendalough, and there are many more throughout the country.
What I want to emphasise now is that we need to spread our tourists, not have them coming just to Cork or Dublin for a day's visit. I should like to mention some of the other places that could be developed. There is Cuchulain's grave near Dundalk. It is a remarkable rath and it may be authentic. It has all the atmosphere. Not far away is Finn's lake on Slieve Gullion. If you could get good lecturers or guides to tell the story about these places, it would have a tremendous effect on tourists. Another most remarkable place which I have never heard mentioned is a fine castle near Dundalk. Its name, I think, is Roche's Castle, or the Castle of the Roches. It dominates the whole hillside and plain and has a magnificent Norman keep, in all about an acre in extent. It compares with some of the great Crusader castles which I have seen in the Lebanon and Syria. It is a place that could be developed considerably, within a convenient run from Dublin or Dundalk. There is another site, Charle's Fort near Kinsale—I wonder does anyone in the House know it? It has Stuart fortification and dominates the harbour in a magnificent way. Its splendid walls are in a very good state of preservation. Altogether it is a magnificent sight.
There are many more assets which could be developed. Senator McGuire mentioned the Georgian houses. We have had tourists coming over purely to see the Georgian houses and the gardens of Ireland. I hope we will do all we can, if I may say so in parenthesis, to preserve their amenities. There is at the moment a threat to Westport House, one of the great houses in the west. It is being threatened with having a factory being built close to its walls. Credit is due to the people who have built up that mansion as a tourist centre. It is a pity if they have to accept a factory taking away from its beauty. I want to emphasise again that we need to spread out our tourist centres. We have far too many of the kind of tourists who dash around Dublin for a couple of days and then leave.
We need to decentralise and spread out our tourist attractions, first, by developing widespread historic sites, as I have suggested, and secondly— and this would be fairly easy—by decentralising the museums. Send some of our best art treasures to Galway, Cork, Limerick or Waterford. Preferably send those that have some regional connection with those areas. If you go to Greece, you must visit at least five different museums, skillfully distributed right through Greece. Athens is not enough. You must go on to Delphi in the west, to Olympia in the southwest 150 miles away, to Delos, one of the islands, and to Rhodes in the southeast. Unfortunately, that is not so in Ireland. You can see almost all our art treasures in or near Dublin. Strategically, this is bad policy, and I hope that the Minister will consider decentralising our art treasures.
A word of praise is due to some of the voluntary organisations throughout the country which have been doing a great deal for the tourist trade. One in particular I should like to mention is the Maritime Institute in Dún Laoghaire. There, by voluntary effort of some local citizens, you have a fine little collection of objects of seafaring history, giving the history of Irish boats, and of Irish seamen and other things of that kind. A month or so ago, the Minister for Justice honoured the Institute by a visit. But it deserves more than that. If Bord Fáilte—or the Minister—would help it financially, it would be thoroughly deserved. This is the only institute of the kind in our island, and it has done a good deal for naval history in one way or another. In Yugoslavia as I saw about four months ago, you go to a small little town called Kotor on the magnificent Gulf of Kotor, a little town of perhaps 4,000 or 5,000 inhabitants. There you find a splendid maritime institute with a remarkable collection of objects worthy of preservation of historic interest in connection with the sea. Again in the nearby town of Dubrovnik, another good maritime institute is found. These institutes serve two purposes. They interest tourists, and they promote young boy's interest in the sea. In time our own navy, our Maritime Inscription and our mercantile marine could benefit. I recommend to the Minister that he should think kindly of that Maritime Institute in Dún Laoghaire.
So far, I have been talking about places. I would like to mention one other strong point. In Ireland, we have great historic personages in the literary world, in the political world and in the world of philosophy. We have not done very much to develop them as tourist attractions. There is a Yeats summer school in Sligo, which is slowly building up a good connection. But there is not much else as far as I know. Bord Fáilte might do very well if they organised tours based on Oliver Goldsmith or Patrick Sarsfield or Jonathan Swift or the O'Neill leaders or something of that kind, and placed their advertisements in the right kind of journals. It might prove an attraction to the kind of tourists who do not just land off a ship and leave that evening, but who want to stay for a week or ten days.
What about organising clan tourism? The O'Mahonys, I understand, already meet in County Cork, and the O'Malleys meet in Galway, in a private way. Bord Fáilte might enlist the O'Neills of the United States and other clansmen to come in en masse in tours to this country. That might be a little horrifying perhaps to the more serious historians amongst us, but we are here to bring tourists to the country and, properly done, it would do good.
Here I want to say something which I think matters a good deal. Much depends on the quality of the guides in this kind of tourism. I hope that Bord Fáilte is watching this. There are two kinds of bad guides. One is the ignorant kind, and tourists very quickly find out if they are ignorant. The other is the biased kind, giving you some slanted history one way or another. That is regrettable, and I know that it causes distaste among tourists eventually, even if the history is slanted in the way they like it. I suggest that Bord Fáilte might consider enlisting rather better equipped guides—university undergraduates or graduates. Only today I saw that there is a private organisation offering to provide guides to historic sites in Dublin. I do not know who they are or whether they are of the right kind. They may or may not be, but this is the kind of thing that Bord Fáilte ought to be very much interested in.
There is another matter which I should mention. These tourists must be entertained in the evening, when the day's journeying is over. Nothing is sadder than to see them in the city of Dublin between 8 and 9 o'clock straggling around Grafton Street or O'Connell Street—it was specially noticeable during the cinema strike— wondering what they could do. Bord Fáilte must try more and more to help every organisation that is providing good entertainment for tourists. In connection with this, I would like to mention one specific matter. Dublin needs a concert hall. It is a scandalous thing that in our capital city there is not a single suitable concert hall which is available during the whole week. The suitable buildings are obtainable only on Saturdays or Sundays.
As the Minister perhaps knows, there is a very attractive proposition before the citizens of Dublin at the moment. The Royal Dublin Society, I understand, have made an offer to provide a concert hall on their own grounds, if they get financial help. They will not do it out of their own money, but if they get financial help from the citizens of Dublin or from the Government, they will have the concert hall built on their own grounds, and, what is more, they will maintain it. There will be no charge, no cost, to the citizens of Dublin or to the State, once this hall is built. This, I think, deserves careful consideration by the Minister and Bord Fáilte and all others interested in the tourist trade. The Royal Dublin Society are prepared to build a hall holding up to 1,800 people which would be suitable not merely for concerts but for international conferences and meetings of that kind. The Government should, if they possibly can, seize this opportunity. It is 50 years now since Dublin has wanted a concert hall, and now here is our chance. I should like to repeat that there is this very attractive point: once the hall is built, the Royal Dublin Society will look after it. We who are meeting in a house which for 100 years was owned by the Royal Dublin Society, are well aware that we can trust the Royal Dublin Society to do well for the citizens of Dublin, if they get encouragement. I emphasise this project as one of the things that we might perhaps immediately do. It would provide entertainment for tourists as well as bringing up the standard of music and art in our country.
The last point I want to mention is this: for a hundred years, we have been consistently neglecting a most inexpensive and effective way of publicising Ireland as a tourist centre. It costs the State almost nothing. Indeed, if properly handled, it would cost the State nothing at all, but would bring in revenue. I refer to what my late colleague, Senator Fearon, used often to mention in this House—our postage stamps. There is a great opportunity for postage stamps showing historical personages or scenic views. If properly designed and properly distributed, they would greatly increase tourist interest in our country. So far as I know, every nation in the world, except our neighbour across the water, Great Britain, does it. Is it that we are in the shadow of Great Britain in some way in this? I hope not.
I have before me an Irish 2d. stamp. It is deplorable. It is old-fashioned, drab in colour, poor in design, with a blank map of Ireland. Really, as a symbol of fatuity this stamp is outstanding. The 3d. stamp is better. It has a good Celtic design. The 4d. stamp, with the armorial bearings of the Four Provinces, is dull. We could afford good 2d. and 3d. stamps, constantly changed, because philatelists will see that it will not cost us much money, showing such historic personages as we have had. But they should be historically famous, rather than figures of national piety. These could be tourist attractions. Of the others, Tom Clarke, for example, was a good patriot, but I do not see him as an international tourist attraction. There have been a good many stamps of that kind. I suggest that the citizens of the United States, France and Germany could be influenced by these stamps to come to see places and persons they are interested in. If the stamps were well-designed and well-cut, they would be a very effective way of publicising our history and our scenery assets for the tourist trade.
Those are only suggestions, but they are based on recent experience, and experience of small countries like our own, countries that are just building up their tourist trade. However, as I said at the outset, the promoters of our tourist traffic deserve very considerable congratulation, and for that reason I think the Bill should have our full support.