An Englishman, a pioneering agriculturalist, we are told, visiting Ireland in 1813, wrote a book in which he detailed what he saw in the fields, what farmers told him of crops and yields and rents. He was appalled by the reliance on the potato. The potato, as we know, is a good source of nourishment, but our author wrote remember this is thirty years before the Famine The greatest political alteration that could take place in this distressed country, would be a dislike to potatoes, and a general preference in the rising generation to bread and animal food." Not so easy to, achieve. He fell for the Irish people, showed deep compassion for the poor and wrote "The Irish peasant, however, though poor in what the world calls riches, possesses that in his cabin which the mines of Peru could not furnish a warmth of heart, an overflowing of the kindest domestic affections and of the purest joys of life." The visitor was John Christian Curwen (1756-1828), from a Manx family and was a first cousin of Fletcher Christian of the Bounty. He was an MP for nearly 40 years, an agriculturalist, as noted, and was awarded the silver medal of the Irish Farming Society.
He certainly admired much of the scenery, too. The McGillycuddy Reeks were, he claimed, more "sublime" than the much higher "Mont Blanc and its fellow Alps." He spent two months in the country. The Giant's Causeway was fine, but smaller than he expected. The Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge alarmed him. He did not try it but suffered "the extreme pain of seeing a man cross with a child in his arms." There was only one handrail then.
All this in an article in the Spring issue of History Ireland, written by the great great great grandson of the traveller. Michael Curwen, with two friends, tried to retrace the steps of his ancestor around the country. The original book's title not its subtitle was Observations on the State of Ireland principally directed to its Agriculture and Rural Population, in a series of letters written on a tour through that country. Much more in this History Ireland, the editors of which are Hiram Morgan of the Dept. of History in UCC and Tommy Graham, Dept. of Modern History, TCD.