Great Famine came to see at first-hand the miseries of the people, and to offer analysis of ways forward, not all of which was either unhelpful or discourteous. The chapter also offers a brief study of the late-nineteenth-century writers who appeared unable to free themselves from feelings of insecurity and strife, and of how political uncertainty impinged so completely upon their texts. Drawing tourism developments and literary texts together, this chapter demonstrates the importance of the travel narrative form, its contribution to our political understanding of a particular period and its relevance to literary history more generally.