Deckchair Philosopher: It is often the case that a sharp political insight, which might at another time have sparked a fruitful exploration of fundamental questions, simply evaporates in the hurly-burly of electoral struggle, never to re-emerge into public consciousness.

Such, I believe, was the case with the argument advanced by Ted Neville of Cork, one half of the fighting team put forward by the Immigration Control Platform during the 2002 general election.

Asylum seekers, Mr Neville argued, were costing the taxpayer far too much in handouts. But more seriously, their presence here was serving to "dilute Irish culture", which, as he pointed out, was "essential to attract tourists".

Though this intervention was possibly the only one in the entire campaign to address the vital question of what Irish culture is actually for, it vanished almost instantly from the political radar. . . as indeed did the candidate himself, to whom the philistine burghers of South Central awarded a mere 371 votes.

I was reminded of Mr Neville while musing on the disquieting news that GoIreland.com, an online shop window that provides a destination management system for Irish tourism services and products (phew), seems to have taken upon itself to question the continuing "relevance" to "Ireland today" of what is surely one of the premier icons of Irish culture of the past 40 years.

I speak of course of the famous John Hinde postcard, dating from 1963, of two happy red-haired youngsters piloting their charming donkey home over the bog, laden to overflowing with creels of fragrant turf. While GoIreland won't say straight out that it is time for this cherished image to be ditched, it is certainly pointing in that direction, with an appeal to tourists to enter a competition by submitting "a photograph that you feel best represents Ireland today".

Yet surely, had it given any thought to the matter, GoIreland would have seen that this is not only a very risky proposition, but one almost certain to attract a lot of smart alecs. It is also quite unnecessary.

The assumption behind all the palaver about "Ireland today" seems to be that the Hinde turf-collecting image perfectly reflected the reality of 1963. Yet in fact this was a year when Ireland was absolutely bursting with energy and innovation.

Lemass and Whitaker had been at their work for some years and in June, president John Kennedy, the perfect symbol of youth and thrusting modernity, received a rapturous reception on his visit here. My own family travelled 150 miles in our shiny new Ford Anglia to see him in the flesh (the donkey being down with colic).

The early 60s was also a period when Bord na Móna hugely expanded its mechanised peat-milling operations. But John Hinde had enough cop to realise there would be little market for postcards of this activity. Our tourists at the time fell into just two categories: returned Yanks and prosperous English.

For both, images of carrot-headed kids and hard labour out on the bogs were just the ticket. For the Yanks it was a reassurance that in spite of the hard life they might be leading in the Bronx or south Boston, they had been right to emigrate; for the Brits it confirmed their suspicions that the Irish, though in many ways a charming people, would never really be quite up to the difficult business of running a country.

Our "tourism package" and its targets have changed since then, but wisely we have largely continued to peddle the same old images, based on a few simple formulae and largely using natural, or at least home- produced, products: the pint of Guinness (rain plus roasted barley), the gnarled, expressive faces of our bachelor farmers (rain plus poitín) and the variegated greens of our fields and hillsides (rain plus phosphates).

Throw in a couple of "writers" - useless liúdramáns for the most part who now, at last, have the chance to help out the hospitality industry and make up for the little they earned when alive - and you have the dream tourism product.

Who in their right mind would change that enchanting mix for "Irish reality"? Have you ever seen a postcard of a traffic jam?