As this book has attempted to demonstrate, in pre-Famine Ireland the average tour could involve two parallel tracks, the combination of which varied for each visitor. One track searched for the picturesque; the other for Ireland, or at least an understanding of Irish society. Curiosity about the people of a host country is, or should be, a proper part of any type of tourism. In the case of British visitors to Ireland, however, their tours contained an implicit imperative, even before the Act of Union. While the picturesque was often a convenient perceptual screen that could blur unpleasant realities, in Ireland reality frequently forced itself upon the traveler. In fact, as suggested several times throughout this study, the picturesque created preconditions whereby Irish problems, especially the country's poverty, were seen as a contradiction to Ireland's natural beauty. As a result, visitors frequently felt that something was “wrong” with Ireland.

Something was, indeed, wrong, and if visitors been willing to look more deeply and honestly into the history and nature of British-Irish relations, the sense of contradiction might have led to useful reforms. However, British blame fell too easily on Irish landlords and peasants. And questions of national character too often pushed aside the recognition of basic economic problems. Once the Famine took hold, both the government and the British public speedily abandoned effective relief and shifted the burden of aiding a starving peasantry onto the shoulders of the already strained Irish property class.