Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This article uses the personalised political tour of the Falls Road as a case study with which to unpack the debate on political tourism in Northern Ireland. It shows how significant the walking mode of tourist transport is to the tourist experience and how integrated and effective it is in the context of explaining the Troubles and extending the Republican ideology. Within this contentious narrative of movement, the tour guide develops an ambivalence that intrigues, repulses and propels the tourist through the tour.

Keywords

Belfast dark tourism movement narrative political tourism terrorism tour guide walking

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anderson

(1991) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalisms. London: Verso.

Barrett

(2007) ‘Belfast Learns to Package up its Troubles’, The Mail Online (online), 26 June. Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/holidaytypeshub/article-596296/Belfast-learns-package-Troubles.html (accessed 11 August 2014).

Bras

Dahles

(1999) ‘Pathfinder, Gigolo, and Friend: Diverging Entrepreneurial Strategies of Tourist Guides on Two Indonesian Islands’, pp. 128–45 in Dahles

Bras

(eds) Tourism and Small Entrepreneurs: Development, National Policy, and Entrepreneurial Culture: Indonesian Cases. New York: Cognizant Communication Corporation.

Bryan

(2000) Orange Parades: The Politics of Ritual, Tradition and Control. London: Pluto Press.

Bunten

(2008) ‘Sharing Culture or Selling Out? Developing the Commodified Persona in the Heritage Industry’, American Anthropologist 35(3): 380–95.

Causevic

Lynch

(2011) ‘Pheonix Tourism: Post-Conflict Tourism Role’, Annals of Tourism Research 38(3): 780–800.

Cohen

(1985) ‘The Tourist Guide: The Origins, Structure and Dynamics of a Role’, Annals of Tourism Research 12: 5–29.

Costa

(2009) Coach Fellas: Heritage and Tourism in Ireland. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.

Drobnick

(2002) ‘Toposmia: Art, Scent and Interrogations of Spatiality’, Angelaki 7(1): 31–46.

10.

Edensor

(2008) ‘Walking Through Ruins’, pp.123–41 in Ingold

Vergunst

(eds) Ways of Walking: Ethnography and Practice on Foot. Padstow: Ashgate.

11.

Egan

(2012) ‘Walking Back to Happiness: Modern Pilgrimage and the Expression of Suffering on Spain’s Camino de Santiago’. In: Skinner

(ed.) Writing the Dark Side of Travel. Oxford: Berghahn Books, pp.99-121.

12.

Feldman

(1991) Formations of Violence: The Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in Northern Ireland. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

13.

Feldman

(2007) ‘Constructing a shared Bible Land: Jewish Israeli Guiding Performances for Protestant Pilgrims’, American Ethnologist 342: 351–74.

14.

Feldman

(2008) Above the Death Pits, beneath the Flag: Youth Voyages to Poland and the Performance of Israeli National Identity. Oxford: Berghahn Publications.

15.

Fine

Speer

(1985) ‘The Tour Guide Performances as Site Sacralization’, Annals of Tourism Research 12(1): 73–95.

16.

Gooch

(2008) ‘Feet Following Hooves’, pp. 67–80 in Ingold

Vergunst

(eds) Ways of Walking: Ethnography and Practice on Foot. Padstow: Ashgate.

17.

Hansard . (2008) ‘Tourism’, Northern Ireland Assembly Private Member’s Business’, 19 February. Available at: http://archive.niassembly.gov.uk/record/reports2007/080219.htm (accessed 15 July 2014).

18.

Hepburn

(2012) ‘Shades of Darkness: Silence, Risk, and Fear among Tourists and Nepalis during Nepal’s Civil War’, pp.122–42 in Skinner

(ed.) Writing the Dark Side of Travel. Oxford: Berghahn Books.

19.

Jafa

(2012) Performing Heritage: Art of Exhibit Walks. London: SAGE.

20.

Kaeppler

(2000) ‘Dance Ethnology and the Anthropology of Dance’, Dance Research Journal 32(1): 116–25.

21.

Katz

(2010) ‘Time for New Urban Ethnographies’, Ethnography 11(3): 1–20.

22.

Katz

(1985) ‘The Israeli Teacher-Guide: The Emergence and Perpetuation’, Annals of Tourism Research 12(1): 49–72.

23.

Larsen

(2001) ‘Tourism Mobilities and the Travel Glance: Experiences of Being on the Move’, Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism 1(2): 80–98.

24.

Legat

(2008) ‘Walking Stories; Leaving Footprints’, pp. 35–50 in Ingold

Vergunst

(eds) Ways of Walking: Ethnography and Practice on Foot. Padstow: Ashgate.

25.

Lennon

Foley

(2000) Dark Tourism. London: Continuum.

26.

Lyng

(1990) ‘Edgework: A Social Psychological Analysis of Voluntary Risk Taking’, American Journal of Sociology 95: 851–86.

27.

Lysaght

(1995) ‘Catholics, Protestants and Office Workers from the Town: The Experience and Negotiation of Fear in Northern Ireland’, pp.127–44 in Svašek

Milton

(eds) Mixed Emotions: Anthropological Studies of Feeling. Oxford: Berg Publishers.

28.

MacCannell

(1976) The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Schocken Books.

29.

Patri

(2009) ‘Political Tourism in West Belfast: Post-conflict Narratives of Self-Representation’, MA Dissertation, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast.

30.

Pond

(1993) The Professional Guide: Dynamics of Tour Guiding. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

31.

Rapport

Vaisman

(2005) ‘The Embodiment of Learning and Teaching: The Enigma of Nonarrival’ (ed Skinner

, Special Edition: Embodiment and Teaching and Learning in Anthropology), Anthropology in Action. 12(2): 1–11.

32.

Rojek

(1993) Ways of Escape: Modern Transformations in Leisure and Travel. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

33.

Salazar

(2012) Envisioning Eden: Mobilising Imaginaries in Tourism and Beyond. Oxford: Berghahn Books.

34.

Schneider

Susser

(2003) Wounded Cities: Destruction and Reconstruction in a Globalized World. Oxford: Berg Publishers.

35.

Seaton

(2012) ‘Thanatourism and Its Discontents: An Appraisal of a Decade’s Work with Some Future Issues and Directions’, pp.521–42 in Jamal

Robinson

(eds) The SAGE Handbook of Tourism Studies. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

36.

Sheets-Johnstone

(1966) The Phenomenology of Dance. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press.

37.

Skinner

(2012) ‘Introduction: Writings on the Dark Side of Travel’, pp.1–28 in Skinner

(ed.) Writing the Dark Side of Travel. Oxford: Berghahn Books.

38.

Skinner

(2014) ‘Maze Breaks in Northern Ireland: Terrorism, Tourism and Storytelling in the Shadows of Modernity’.In Convery

Corsane

Davis

(eds) Displaced Heritage: Dealing with Disaster and Suffering. Woodbridge, VA: Boydell & Brewer Ltd. pp.85-93.

39.

Solnit

(2002) Wanderlust: A History of Walking. London: Verso.

40.

Turner

(1978) Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture. Oxford: Blackwell.

41.

Urry

(1994) The Tourist Gaze: Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies. London: SAGE.

42.

Vergunst

(2008) ‘Taking a Trip and Taking Care in Everyday Life’, pp.105–22 in Ingold

Vergunst

(eds) Ways of Walking: Ethnography and Practice on Foot. Padstow: Ashgate.

43.

Vergunst

(2010) ‘Rhythms of Walking: History and Presence in a City Street’, Space and Culture 13(4): 376–88.

44.

Weiler

Hall

(1992) Special Interest Tourism. London: Belhaven Press.

45.

Widlok

(2008) ‘The Dilemmas of Walking: A Comparative View’, pp.51–66 in Ingold

Vergunst

(eds) Ways of Walking: Ethnography and Practice on Foot. Padstow: Ashgate.

46.

Wynn

(2011) The Tour Guide: Walking and Talking New York. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.