Abstract
This essay concerns the aesthetic category of “quaintness.” The quaint is argued here as useable as an aesthetic-political tool with which to construct cultural authenticity or the sense of a preserved past and the maintenance of social order within a hyper-globalised world. The essay makes its argument through consideration of Irish identity aesthetics of the 1960s and 1970s; specifically, the postcards of the John Hinde Studio and the urban design schemes of the Tidy Towns programme. These quaint phenomena contributed to Irish post-war liberal modernisation and its fostering of international tourism, presenting a particular commercialised image of the “pre-modern” and the “traditional.” Confrontation between the tourist economy and Irish Traveller populations is used to highlight the political functions of quaintness.
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