F 1.9:Collège des Irlandais Paris & Irish Studies

by Proinsias MacCana

2001. xiv + 190 pp.

pbk €20

ISBN 1 85500 195 0

Preface

The present essay originated in an invitation from my colleague Professor Rolf Baumgarten to contribute an article on the Irish College in Paris to the annual Newsletter of the School of Celtic Studies: when the resulting text eventually outgrew the space allocated to it, it was suggested it might be issued as a separate publication. Given the context in which the essay was first proposed it seemed natural that it should concern itself with what is known of the College's historical involvement in Irish studies and that it should focus primarily, though not exclusively, on the evidence for the status of the Irish language within the College community, both as a living vernacular among staff and students and as a medium of literary and intellectual expression. This represents only one of a number of valid perspectives from which one may view the history of the College and it is offered as a very minor and provisional contribution to that history when the time is ripe to compile it. Meanwhile I cannot pretend to have exhausted all the possible sources of information even in this more restricted domain, and I would be well content were it to prove necessary in the not too distant future to issue a revised and somewhat expanded version of the present text.

For a work of such modest pretension it has benefited inordinately from the counsel of others. I am indebted to Mgr Brendan Devlin, Rector of Collège des Irlandais and former Professor of French in St Patrick's College Maynooth, who lent it his expert and experienced imprimatur, as also to other friends and colleagues who read my text and offered suggestions for its improvement: Fr Liam Swords, who did much service to Collège des Irlandais in his former capacity as archivist and chaplain and whose various publications I have found invaluable; Professor Pierre-Yves Lambert, Ècole Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris; Professor Pádraig A. Breatnach, University College Dublin; Dr Alan Harrison, also of University College Dublin; Ms Bernadette Cunningham, Deputy Librarian of the Royal Irish Academy; and finally I must mention my colleague Dr Michelle O Riordan who gave me much useful advice on sixteenth and seventeenth-century historical sources as well as seeing the finished text through the press. There are still others whom I consulted on specific matters, and I trust that their advice and information are adequately acknowledged in the appropriate contexts. The fact remains, however, that the present review can be no more than a first essay while so much research remains to be carried out on the primary sources for the general history of the College and of its many fascinating personalities from John Lee onwards. There is there a broad and fertile field standing white to harvest.

In any review of the College's history, however summary, it would be amiss not to acknowledge the support of its many French friends and benefactors who helped secure its beginnings and ensure its survival in subsequent times of crisis. I mention several of them in my text and close with the testimony of Canon Ouin-la-Croix who kept watch solicitously over the deserted College during the Franco-German war and the hazardous days of the Paris Commune. There is one other whose contribution I feel it is particularly appropriate to record at this time. M. Maurice Caillet, a man much respected for his great learning and experience in the world of books and libraries, rendered the College a great service in a difficult period of transition and scant resources. Inspecteur Général des bibliothèques de France since 1963, he retired from the Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale in 1977 and in the following year entered on a long and active, and wholly voluntary, association with the library of Collège des Irlandais. As honorary librarian he has selflessly given his time and energy to classifying and cataloguing the collection, organizing selective exhibitions and publishing the results of his personal research on the history of the library and its holdings. Only on his ninetieth birthday, 9 November 2000, did he finally sever his formal connection with the College and its library, though his interest in both continues undiminished. Il a bien mérité de nos deux patries.

Finally, a brief word on a recent event of great moment for the College. This short survey of its associations with Irish studies was inspired by a certain sense of curiosity about the cultural interests and affiliations of some of those who strove to ensure the College's survival over long periods of shifting fortunes and was written in a spirit of hopeful expectation that the necessary resources would be forthcoming to ensure that the potential of the College as an Irish cultural and educational centre would he fully realized. And in the end, as it were between pen and print, that hope has been given substance. In May of last year, the year two thousand, the Irish government announced its decision to provide a subvention of seven million pounds towards the complete renovation of the existing building in rue des Irlandais, the work to be carried out under the direction of the Office of Public Works. In the absence of the Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern TD, who was detained by urgent talks in 10 Downing Street on the Northern Ireland Agreement, the formal announcement was made in Collège des Irlandais on Wednesay, 3 May 2000, by Mr Martin Cullen TD, Minister of State at the Department of Finance (with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works). Work is due to commence early in 2001 and it is intended that the College will reopen in 2002, not merely to a new year but to a new phase of its history.