Cultural Tourism: A Case Study of John McGahern's Leitrim

Project Description

Tourism is a hugely important industry in Ireland, delivering €7.8bn in expenditure in 2019. Very little of the footfall came to those peripheral areas of Leitrim and Roscommon, however. This project seeks to use the work of one of Ireland’s foremost prose writers, John McGahern (1934-2006), to generate more cultural tourism in this largely undiscovered part of Ireland. McGahern’s ability to make of one place an everywhere, to transmit through skillful use of language the remarkable beauty of the Leitrim landscape, to describe the customs and rituals of the inhabitants there, is one of his primary literary achievements. This project will map the places immortalised in the renowned writer’s work by employing a multidisciplinary approach that will suggest the ways in which McGahern could possibly do for Leitrim what Joyce has done for Dublin, or Heaney for Bellaghy, or to a lesser extent, Yeats for Sligo: namely, encourage more people to visit his homeland in order to find traces of the work in the places he mined for his inspiration. There will also be close collaboration with local groups such as Leitrim County Council and the national organisation, Fàilte Ireland.

Student Requirements

2.1 Hons Level 8 in Tourism, English, Journalism or Business. A Masters in one of the areas above would be a definite advantage.

How to Apply

Interested candidates are invited to complete an Expression of Interest Form at https://forms.office.com/r/wzGYFFKu1t