John Hume used to play a trick on the posh diplomats from Washington and London who would visit him in Derry. When feeding time arrived, Hume would suggest a pub lunch. Being diplomats, his guests would say nothing but inwardly feared the worst.

Hume would then bring them across the Border to Kealys Seafood Bar in Greencastle, Co Donegal. There James and Tricia Kealy would present them with lobster the like of which they had never tasted before, not even in the grandest of restaurants.

Kealys is a good example of why Ireland attracts a good class of visitor. But, says Tricia Kealy, this summer has been difficult. The 1994 IRA ceasefire brought visitors from the South who had never been to Donegal before. They were gingerly exploring the tourist attractions of Northern Ireland and would also dip into Donegal.

The ending of the ceasefire caused this business to fall off. Then Drumcree 1996 fed into 1997. Customers who could be expected to come from Belfast did not arrive - "they were afraid to leave their homes, not sure of what they might return to".

At the other end of the country, petrol sales in the Kenmare area are down 40 per cent over last year. Jim Feeney, general manager of the Parknasilla Great Southern, says business was good up to May, June was slow and July was downright flat. Things are picking up again and he hopes the hotel will come out ahead for the full year.

Feeney is one of many in the tourist industry who blames the weather - not the weather of 1997, but the weather of 1996. Anybody who remembers a holiday spent in Ireland in the summer was unlikely to want to repeat the experience. Picture the scene. A rented mobile home in Courtown, the rain bucketing down, cranky children, no dry clothes, damp sand between the toes. The holiday from hell.

The Parknasilla Great Southern is not like that, of course. But Feeney's point is valid. A bad Irish summer will make many travel agents happy the following year. Feeney also points to the obvious fact that there is a great deal more competition about. The deadliest competitor of all is Dublin. Even before the recent appreciation of sterling against the Irish pound, £79 could buy a weekend package in Dublin, flight and accommodation included. Tom Williams, owner of the Courtyard restaurant in Donnybrook, says there are 70 B & Bs within walking distance of his premises. These people are looking for value for money when they eat, not a lofty gourmet experience that costs more than their flight from Stansted.

Williams agrees with the now widely accepted belief that Dublin and the east coast are prospering more from the growth in tourism than the west and south-west. There is one particular reason for this: access. In 1995, 75 per cent of all visitors entered Ireland through the east coast. That percentage is now believed to be 80 per cent, and higher in the case of European travellers.

Shannon Airport is the big loser, along with the tourist hinterland it serves. This year, the once unthinkable is happening: more Americans are arriving in Ireland through Dublin Airport than Shannon.

Michael and Jane O'Callaghan of Longueville House in Co Cork say they have empty rooms at a time of the year when they shouldn't. Michael O'Callaghan, who also imports wine, says many of his customers are complaining about the season. Even the normally bustling Kinsale is affected, he says.

"One man told me it's been the worst season in 10 years."

Jane O'Callaghan says the IRA ceasefire came too late. People who were booking their holidays earlier this year did not know there would be a ceasefire by summer.

Dermot McEvilly of Cashel House Hotel in Connemara recognises that IRA ceasefires, desirable though they are, can cost business. He calculated the last one meant a drop in revenue for him of 16 per cent, caused by a mixture of foreigners who would have gone to Connemara experimenting with the North, and the home holiday market doing the same.

A Bord Failte spokesman conceded that not all areas of the country will share equally in the growth predicted for the current year.

The Minister for Tourism, Jim McDaid, is a Donegalman and will be keenly aware of the unhappiness of the tourist industry up and down the west coast that the forecast of a 7 per cent growth in tourism this year is not filtering down to them. Anne Hackett of the Two Mile Inn on the road to Shannon wants Mr McDaid to do something urgently to address the "alarming imbalance" that has opened up in the tourist industry in her part of the country and the capital.