Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-lvwk9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-06T04:43:38.290Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

6 - On Why the UK’s First National Park Might Have Been in Ireland

Matthew Kelly
Affiliation:
Northumbria University, Newcastle
Get access

Summary

The UK government first gave serious thought to designating National Parks in 1929 when Ramsay MacDonald's Labour Government commissioned Christopher Addison to investigate the issue. His recommendations were received favourably in Whitehall, but their formal adoption was derailed by the economic crisis engulfing the country. The successor National Government paid lip service to Addison's proposals, but significant executive action was not taken. The issue was revisited during the Second World War and taken up by the Attlee governments. The National Parks Act 1949 established the National Parks Commission, which was empowered to designate National Parks in England and Wales. By 1957, ten were designated. Much of the drive for these designations came from access campaigners and it was no coincidence that the legislative steps were taken by a Labour government. National Park designation was as integral to the social democratic agenda as the creation of the National Health Service.

As is often the case in British history, a broadly accepted historical narrative is complicated if account is taken of Ireland. National Park history in the United Kingdom would look very different had lobbyists succeeded in persuading the government to purchase the Muckross Demesne in County Kerry and manage it as a National Park when it came on the market in 1899. The same might be said of the history of the National Trust, which launched a campaign to raise the funds to buy the estate. Such a large holding, dwarfing any other National Trust acquisition of the period, would have reorientated the geographical focus of the organization and given it a genuine British–Irish character. Either form of acquisition would also have positioned Ireland more prominently within two larger historical processes, namely what one historian has called ‘the dawn of green’ and others have characterized as the history of the nature state.

That the government refused to step in, and that the National Trust campaign made little headway, probably accounts for why this episode has been largely overlooked by historians. It deserves revisiting for a number of reasons. Most obviously, the question had political traction because the estate included much of what was generally considered the most charismatic landscape in Ireland and, according to many commentators, in the UK.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×