Why the Brits are suddenly welcome in `bandit country'

ULSTER'S "bandit country" of South Armagh, scene of some of the most violent clashes of the Troubles, is to appoint two tourism development officers.

Its place-names read like a roll-call in the battle honours of recent Irish republicanism - Forkhill, Bessbrook, Newtonhamilton, Crossmaglen - and the two officials who fill the jobs, one with the district council, another with a local pressure group, would appear to have the most thankless task in tourism.

South Armagh's small towns and villages conjure at once an intimidating image. Army fortresses with grey corrugated iron walls sit brooding in streets, watchtowers sit on every hilltop, military helicopters clatter about, and propaganda still celebrates the exploits of the IRA, with mock road signs warning of "sniper at work" or "heli-buster: control zone" - depicting a helicopter plunging to earth having been shot down by a missile.

Yet these places sit in a soft rolling countryside of outstanding natural beauty, to which peace has come. It has a rare culture of song, music and dance which has been preserved because of its relative isolation since it was sandwiched up against the border by partition. "The area is like a mini-Donegal," said Raymond Turley, director of services for Newry and Mourne district council. "It has all the cultural and traditional attractions of West Clare or West Cork."

The planned appointment of tourism officials is an effort to kick-start the stuttering economy of this corner of Northern Ireland and banish the "bandit country" tag which has grown out of 25 years of conflict.

Newry and Mourne will employ one of them, for tourist promotion and co-ordination; the other will work for a local people's organisation called RoSA - regeneration of South Armagh - which has seized on tourism as one of the routes out of the economic despair of an area where 18 per cent of the workforce is jobless. In five years, Raymond Turley estimates that there could be 200 to 250 new tourism-related jobs.

During the Troubles there was a lack of confidence which stemmed from a lack of private sector investment, said Ann McGeeney, RoSA's managing director.

"What you had was a siege mentality. When you're in an area which people are calling `bandit country' or `the killing fields' or whatever, you start to believe it and there was a lack of investment. But the community realised they could do it for themselves and that would kick-start economic life."

The Courtyard Centre in Slieve Gullion Forest Park is one such initiative. It sits in an area of ideal for walkers, which also draws geology students who come to study a volcanic ringed-dike, said to be on a par with its more famous cousin, the Giant's Causeway. With almost £1m of funding from the International Fund for Ireland and the EU, and a contribution from the local community, the centre in a refurbished farm building will be open by June.

"Tourism brings money and jobs," said Mrs McGeeney. "But it also brings less tangible things, like confidence and a feeling of self-worth, which are very important for an area like this which has been hammered."