SNIPPET: Donal HORGAN lives in the city of Cork and is a school teacher with a life-long interest in tourism. Author of "Echo: Killarney and its History," HORGAN's most recent publication is "The Victorian Visitor In Ireland: Irish Tourism 1840-1910." It is available from bookshops and was published by imagimedia. There is also an article by Mr. HORGAN(accompanied by several marvelous old photographs) in the May-June 2003 issue of Dublin's "Ireland of the Welcomes" magazine. Up until the 1820s, the journey across the Irish Sea was made under sail and an experience only to be "endured," but the development of an extensive steam packet service between various Irish and British ports improved things considerably. Per the author, the Victorian era took its name and much of its tone from Queen Victoria. Born in 1819, she became Queen in 1837 and reigned for 64 years until her death in 1901. She first visited Ireland in 1849 when the royal yacht docked at Cobh, Co. Cork, and in her honour the town was renamed Queenstown. Accompanied by her husband, she inspected the Book of Kells at Trinity College. The Queen visited Ireland in 1853 and again in 1861 when she visited Killarney. Her fourth and final visit came in April 1900, when the elderly monarch spent three weeks in Dublin staying in the Phoenix Park at the Vice-Regal Lodge, now the official resident of the President of Ireland. Queen Victoria's visits did much to popularise Ireland as a holiday destination. However, until the late 19th century such travel was confined to a small elite who had both the time and means to indulge themselves in holiday-making. Invariably, many were drawn from the new industrial cities of England. As early as 1840, tourists were already visiting locations such as Dublin, Killarney, the Giant's Causeway and sea-side resorts such as Bray, Portrush, and Kilkee. Lisdoonvarna, that Co. Clare spa resort, was a perennial favourite of all health-conscious Victorians. Extension of railway lines in 1851 brought visitors to Galway and the desolate vastness of Connemara. In 1895 there was a link between Galway and Clifden. Dublin was connected with Belfast, and most visitors remarked on the great contrast between the largely rural south of Ireland with the industrial north that included Belfast. In the aftermath of the Great Famine (1845-49), Ireland was indeed a different country to a bustling industrial England. Poverty was endemic, particularly in the cities and along the western seaboard. Most visitors were shocked by the scale of this poverty, with many writing of being pursued for miles by beggars and those seeking alms. There apparently was, however, an abundance of food available for those with money to buy it. Fish was particularly plentiful and in 1842, THACKERAY remarked that he paid only two shillings for a turbot that would have a cost a guinea (21 shillings) in London's Billingsgate Market. Tourism in Ireland took a major leap forward with the development of the railways. Ireland's first railway was built in 1834, linking Dublin with the nearby port of Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire). This railway line was an immediate success and sparked a period of railway building through Ireland. Comfort was not always guaranteed and well-to-do travellers usually took along foot warmers and well-stocked picnic baskets for long journeys. By 1870, Ireland had close to 2,000 miles of railway carrying an impressive 14 million passengers annually! Popular souvenirs and gift items in the 19th century included Belleek pottery, founded in 1857, and Connemara marble which has been quarried at Recess, Co. Galway since the late 19th century. In Killarney the emphasis was on the manufacture of trinkets inlaid with local yew and arbutus wood (now highly prized by collectors) while guides at the Giant's Causeway in Antrim offered tourists fossils and rock collections. In Limerick, lace was popular with visitors and the grieving Queen Victoria is said to have used Limerick lace when mourning the death of her husband, Prince Albert. Old photos in the magazine include the Royal Hotel, Glendalough, Co. Wicklow with the round tower of St. Kevin's monastic settlement in the background; the Galway to Clifden mail car, c. 1880 with a rich assortment of bundled-up travellers aboard; three older Irish women wearing shawls (one smoking a pipe!) seated on the "wishing chair" at the Giant's Causeway in Antrim (circa 1890) with baskets of items for sale; portable changing huts lined up at the seaside resort of Tramore, Co. Waterford; and a well-dressedVictorian family posed at the Twin Wells, Lisdoonvarna, Co. Clare circa 1908. There is an illustration "The Seafront at Bray, Co. Wicklow in 1862" as depicted by Erskine NICOL (1825-1904) courtesy of the National Gallery of Ireland. There is also a charming and colorful cover of a supplement to "The Sketch," April 4, 1900, which commemorated Queen Victoria's fourth visit to Ireland. Illustration is of a fair Irish girl presenting the Queen with a bouquet of shamrocks wrapped with a ribbon that reads "Irish Valour." She is greeted by the words, "A Hundred Thousand Welcomes." One comment found in the article is that of Ann Marie DE BOVET, in "Three Months in Ireland" (1891), who described legs of mutton, roasted and swimming in a delicious gravy that was "the only triumph of Irish cookery." She was critical of the boiled fowls which she felt were "dishonored" by a white paste with chopped parsley - the national sauce. She enjoyed potatoes boiled in their jackets and other assorted vegetables but called the soup with its pepper & cloves "abominable." You'll be glad to hear that Ms. DE BOVET found the ham to her liking!