PRE CEASEFIRE south Armagh was a place of striking images. IRA roadblocks, barrack buster mortars, snipers hiding in ditches, and British soldiers flying in helicopters across fields where they dared not walk.
Nowadays, things are more sedate. "A welcome smile, a country mile, stay a while," is how South Armagh Tourism is selling the area. It launched its first literature at a press conference yesterday.
A colour brochure extols the peace and beauty of towns and villages which witnessed the heat and fury off the Troubles. Crossmaglen, Camlough, Forkhill, Bessbrook, Whitecross and Newry are places to relax and forget about the world.
Crossmaglen, with four main restaurants in its square, is described as "an ideal stopping place for a bite to eat". Camlough has a "beautiful ribbon lake where you can fish for a big pike". The old mercantile town of Newry offers "dignified buildings and tall warehouses along its quays".
"With the sun on your face and the wind on your back, this is a wonderful landscape for walkers and cyclists, who can appreciate its beauty at a leisurely pace," the brochure states.
"For those on horseback, it can almost be a mystical experience as you ride in the hoof prints of Cuchulain around the slopes of the Ring of Gullion." "Bandit country", as the British tabloids used to call it, has definitely lost its edge.
Mr Miceal McCoy, of South Armagh Tourism, said there had been a huge influx of visitors into the area since the ceasefire. During the Troubles, around 200 came every year. Last year, that increased tenfold, and they are hoping for around 4,000 tourists this year.
Mr McCoy said that he wasn't trying to hide the area's past, "its republicanism, its love of the Irish language, or its craic". He added "We're not trying to change the place. South Armagh is and always will be South Armagh. But politically things have changed. We are now in a peaceful situation and South Armagh is going to take advantage of that to the full."
The brochure shows the area's small green fields, old lanes, and collages in their splendour. Visitors will experience hospitality, friendliness, and the values "of the past
But Sinn Fein councillor, Mr Jim McAllister, warned residents not to invest too much hope in tourism. "It will never be the lifeblood of our economy, he said.
"The ugly British military installations which remain in South Armagh do not help attract visitors. I would advise locals not to be rushing out to buy in large quantities oil to sell."