France-Ireland: Anatomy of a Relationship - Studies in History, Literature and Politics

Despite the broad variety of areas and periods covered by the contributors, all acknowledged experts in their fields, the clear structure in its 372 pages keeps the reader firmly in focus.

Along with the index, the layout, which divides the book into five chapters entitled , "Setting the scene", "Intertextual readings", "Catholicism, Nationalism and Philosophical Enlightenment", "Daniel O'Connell, Wolfe Tone and France" and finally "Culture and the Military", permits the reader to have access to particular areas of interest, without having to trawl laboriously through the text. In the preface Professor J.J. Lee sets the tune by emphasizing the "double weight" of France in Irish imagination: both as a nation for its own but also "as a proxy for  ' Europe ' ".

In the first section, "Setting the scene", Eugene O'Brien, after emphasising the postcolonial intellectual void that followed British withdrawal and the new form of subjection to the twin pillars of authority, Church and State, points to the context in which Irish society has undergone its belated dramatic transformation and broadened its horizons. The changes in education fostered a new climate which made Ireland more and more receptive to the theories of post-modern French writers who helped shape a new Irish consciousness. We are given a good insight into the theories of Derrida, Foucault and Lacan, who initiated a distrust of totalising discourse along with the legitimacy of deconstruction. The journey of the Irish psyche from "Celtic ostrich" to "Celtic tiger" is analysed from an interesting angle. John McDonagh selects Barthes' semiotic analysis of French electoral posters in the 1950s as a model for the study of Bertie Ahern's 2002 electoral posters. He shows what powerful tools posters can be in the construction of the centrality of leadership and the myth of personality.

The second section "Intertextual readings" explores the literary links between the two countries. It includes six essays meant to reveal the influence of major writers and literary trends on Irish authors.

Fabienne Dabrigeon Garcier, who wrote extensively on Irish short story writers, explains the influence of naturalism, as expounded by Emile Zola in le Roman experimental, on George Moore's short fiction. After giving a very clear and handy reminder of the major principles of naturalism, she compares Moore 's first collection of stories Celibates to Balzac's les Célibataires, both following the serial principle of experimental methodology, and analysing the interaction between the "milieux" and the individual.

Cliona Ó Gallchoir focuses on the influence of Germaine De Staël on both Sydney Owenson and Maria Edgeworth in their response to the Act of Union. In De la littérature considérée dans ses rapports avec les institutions socials, De Staël 's major concern (that conflict can lead to enlightenment by uniting contrasting values and characteristics) probably inspired the two Irish female writers' representation of the Union as a desired union between a feminised Ireland and its dominant masculine Other, England .

Brigitte Le Juez emphasizes the prominent role played by Oscar Wilde as the father of a new literary style, free from English constraints and largely indebted to Flaubert. For Wilde, Flaubert was the antidote to Victorian writing. Wilde's rejection of the English as having "the least sense for the beauty of literature" of all the people in the world goes along with his fascination for Flaubert. The author finds interesting echoes of Flaubert's correspondence in the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray, where the writer expounds Flaubert's naturalistic theory: "To reveal art and conceals the artist is art's aim". His decision to write Salome in French can be seen as a homage to French literature and more particularly to Flaubert's Herodias.

Angela's Ryan's comparison of Kate O'Brien's The Ante-Room, an ibsenite tale of emotional and religious crisis in the Mulqueen family, and François Mauriac's Thérèse Desqueroux is quite interesting in the sense that it stresses a common treatment of family conflict and individual dilemma in a traditional catholic environment. The neo-tribal values of the family group are enhanced.

The last comparative essay is by Eamon Maher, who wrote an illuminating article in Studies (Vol.92. No.368) entitled "An introduction to the Life and Work of Jean Sulivan (1913-1980)” and who also won the Prix de l'Ambassade for his translation of Sulivan’s memoir of his mother. Maher highlights the convergences between John McGahern's work The Leavetaking and Jean Sullivan's memoir, both writings set in the 1950s, at a time when French Breton and Irish rural societies were both subjected to the over powerful role of an authoritarian clergy. The two protagonists, whose Oedipus complex generates acute tensions, experience a feeling of guilt and even betrayal for not having responded to their mother's need at a crucial moment.

Finally, Michael O'Dwyer concentrates on Julien Green's emotional and aesthetic response to the Irish countryside and historical sites, as shown in his diary. The discovery of a hidden Ireland , which takes up a dreamlike dimension, is assimilated to a discovery of a hidden self. The sense of "déjà vu", of kinship with the countryside, recalls the notion of metempsychosis.

Under the heading "Catholicism, Nationalism and Philosophical Enlightenment" Liam Chambers writes a very intriguing article on the Irish student priests' response to the Aristotelian-Cartesian struggle for curricular control in seventeenth century Paris . After explaining how Aristotelianism dominated the teaching of philosophy in French universities till the Scientific Revolution, he explains how Descartes' philosophy "began to creep into university teaching in the 1660s and 1670s" and was then perceived as a threat to the Catholic belief in "the divine agency of the world". For obvious reasons the Irish student priests, apart from very rare exceptions, such as Michael Moore, took the Aristotelian side of the debate. This essay gives an interesting insight into the conditions of the Irish clerical students in Paris at the end of the seventeenth century.

Marc Serge Rivière writes about Charles de Montalembert who, after a failed attempt at writing a History of Ireland, resolved to write a diary. His attraction to Ireland was fuelled by the reading of Henry Grattan's speeches, which helped him map out an imaginary Ireland . His tour of Ireland made him sympathise with the predicament of the Irish Catholics, oppressed by both the state and an alien Protestant Church .

Jacinta Wright concentrates on Paul Féval's politically engaged novels and more particularly La Quittance de Minuit, which greatly contributed to French perceptions of the political and social conditions of the Irish in the middle of the nineteenth century. The reader is exposed to the genteel poverty of the ancient Irish aristocracy, represented by the MacDiarmuids, as opposed to the base, ruthless behaviour of the local absentee landlord.

Graham Garret has become increasingly fascinated by French influence in Ireland , especially the influence of the French Enlightenment. In his article he dismisses the view that the abstracts of Jean-Pierre Droz, a Huguenot pastor from Neuchatel who settled in Ireland in 1737 and began publishing A Literary Journal, were merely adapted or translated from abstracts borrowed from other writers. David Irwin challenges the continuity of Irish Republicanism as enunciated by Fianna Fáil, through Foucault's deconstructive discourse of power/knowledge.

One of the most striking pieces of the collection is that of Phyllis Gaffney who gives us a fascinating account of the history of University College Dublin's French Department from its origins and through the struggle for Irish Independence. We are introduced to a number of outstanding figures who gave the Department its cultural and political anima. Professor Chauviré, who became more Irish than the Irish themselves, devotedly achieved a double mission as purveyor of French Culture to the Irish and exporter of the Irish culture to France .

The diplomatic links between France and Ireland during the first decade that followed independence are examined by Amélie Ghesquière who emphasizes the need for France to safeguard good relations with Britain , while at the same time showing support to Ireland .

In Chapter four entitled "Daniel O'Connell, Wolfe Tone and France" emblematic figures such as Wolfe Tone, and Daniel O'Connell are tackled. Grace Neville gives us a fascinating account of O'Connell's life, as a child in France and later as a father and husband. O’Connell’s words "I hate France with a mortal hatred" are seen by her as a cry of despair for being separated from his family, exiled in France . France was hated in the sense that "the Liberator of millions could not liberate his immediate family," who had to seek refuge in France . Laurent Colantonio examines the popularity of O'Connell in France , where many were impressed by such a charismatic leader, one who managed to wrench important concessions from the British giant, while remaining true to his conviction that no revolution was worth a drop of blood. Geraldine Grogan looks to the Catholic leader as a source of inspiration for German Catholics in their organisations and campaigns for civil and religious rights.

Maguy Pernot-Deschamps gives us an interesting insight into Wolfe Tone's attachment to France . A French Republican and a Romantic at heart, Wolfe Tone saw France and Ireland as two sisters in their struggle against tyranny and oppression. The detailed journals of the hero are carefully examined by Sylvie Kleinman, who reveals very interesting aspects of his linguistic difficulties with French.

In the last chapter "Culture and Identity"Brid Ni Chonaill writes a very revealing article on the Felibrige, a cultural and linguistic movement meant to revive the Provençal language in the nineteenth century, highly reminiscent of the Gaelic revival. Quoting Thomas Davis, who said " A people without a language is half a nation", she highlights the role played by an Irishman, William Charles Bonaparte Wyse.

The last two articles look to the military contribution of Irish soldiers in the French services through the eighteenth century and in the Great War. After the Treaty of Limerick (1691), there was a mass military migration of troops, which formed the Irish regiments of the French army. Colm Ó' Conaill’s article contains very interesting tables, with figures for the Irish brigades from 1729 to 1776, along with a special focus on the regiment of Berwick formed in 1698. The complex identity of the soldiers, both Irish and royalist through their dual allegiance to the Stuarts and the Bourbons, is adroitly revealed.

Tom Quinn concentrates on Ireland 's heavy toll in the Great War. According to the author, among the 210, 000 Irish males who served the Great War 30, 000 died. This figure, however, seems to us understated, if we judge from the monument in the Memorial Park in Islandbridge where we can read that over 49, 000 lost their lives.

The obvious merit of such a symposium, which is almost uniformly of a very high quality, is that contributors complement one another and often look at figures and issues from a different angle or through a different lens. Comprehensively footnoted and written in a style that is never overly academic (all but two articles are in English), France-Ireland Anatomy of a Relationship provides a comprehensive approach to the many links between the two nations. While this edition is quite inclusive in terms of historical material as well as theoretical and literary interaction between the two countries, one would perhaps expect a chapter that would attempt to explain the dynamics and evolution of this relationship through the different periods of history. Despite this minor reservation, this work is a major contribution to our understanding of the multi-layered and complex interaction between the two countries. Following the launch of the book at University College Cork, the decision was taken to open a centre for Franco-Irish Studies, based in the Institute of Technology Tallaght , whose purpose is to conduct further research into the long-lasting links and connections between France and Ireland by organising conferences every two years. This timely initiative will undoubtedly attract many post-graduate students, in Ireland as well as in France , ready to explore the various areas of Franco-Irish significance.

Marie-Claire Considere Charon is a Professor of English and Irish Studies at the University of Franche-Comté.  Her book Irelande, une singulière integration européenne was published in 2002.