IRISH TOURIST DEVELOPMENT.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SFECTATOB."1
SIR,—The Irish tourist season has rarely opened under more favourable auspices. The visit of their Majesties the King and Queen to Dublin has proved an unqualified success, and Ireland has been almost unanimous in according them a cordial welcome. The weather has also been exceptionally fine, with a rainfall the lowest recorded during the last forty years. At the same time the heat has been less oppressive than in England or on the continent of Europe, and the evenings have been generally cool—a great relief from the exaggerations of the British climate.
There are as usual a certain amount of improvements to record. The Great Western Railway are running a new Sunday night service to and from Ireland. Roselare can be reached at 5.10, Cork at 9.20, Waterford at 6.25, Limerick at 9.55, and Dublin at 10.30 on Monday morning. When we get to Ireland itself we find that the Road Board has helped several County Councils to improve their roads and bring them up to modern requirements. Thus in Cork and Kerry the roads which had not been prepared for heavy motor
ears gave way last season in a few places owing to the excep- tionally bad weather. These patches have been repaired during the winter and new motor ears of a lighter weight have been placed upon the "Prince of Wales route," between Killarney and Glengariff. A second service of cars leaves Killarney at 1.30 and connects with the train which arrives at Cork at 9.30, thus doing in eight hours a trip which formerly occupied two days and obliged the tourist to spend a night on the way. In Connemara motor cars have this year been for the first time substituted for horse coaches, and complete the run from Clifden to Westport in six hours. It is possible in this way to start by the Limited Mail from Dublin in the morning, make a tour through the west of Galway and Mayo, and spend the night at the Hotel opposite Achill Island. Personal experience enables me also this year to bear witness to a marked improvement in the hotel accommodation of some county towns.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Athenaeum Club, S.W. V. Hussar WALSH.
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