The area of 19th-century German travel writing on Ireland has received widespread scholarly attention over the years in treatises in both English and German, but these efforts were directed largely at fellow-scholars and formed part of an academic discourse on travel, interculturality and alterity. This book, on the other hand, is conceived of more as a reader for the general public than as an academic treatise, presents a surprisingly extensive body of comments drawn from German and Austrian sources from between 1783 and 1865 and lets them «talk for themselves». Some of these remarkably empathetic and well-founded eye-witness accounts were translated into English already in the 19th century by people like Sarah Austin and Sir Lascelles Wraxhall, but the editor has re-translated them to remove varying degrees of antiquatedness of formulation and has added other accounts that were hitherto largely unknown to the non-German-speaking reading public.
«Eoin Bourke [...] hat mit dieser Sammlung von ausgewählten Texten deutscher Reiseschriftsteller und ihrer Übertragung ins Englische eine literaturhistorische Meisterleistung vollbracht.»
(Heiko Steffens, Forum Vormärz Forschung, Jahrbuch 2015)
«Eoin Bourke's 'Poor Green Erin' [...] has drawn an Irish following since its appearance in February this year, and for good reason. The emeritus professor of German from NUI Galway has, by means of translation, recovered a lost library of (mostly) 19th-century reportage on Ireland that few in this country has seen before. A knowledgeable guide can do a lot to make a tour worth making, and Bourke is the best of hosts.»
(Adrian Frazier, The Irish Times, September 22, 2012)
(Heiko Steffens, Forum Vormärz Forschung, Jahrbuch 2015)
«Eoin Bourke's 'Poor Green Erin' [...] has drawn an Irish following since its appearance in February this year, and for good reason. The emeritus professor of German from NUI Galway has, by means of translation, recovered a lost library of (mostly) 19th-century reportage on Ireland that few in this country has seen before. A knowledgeable guide can do a lot to make a tour worth making, and Bourke is the best of hosts.»
(Adrian Frazier, The Irish Times, September 22, 2012)