DISCOVER IRISH PARIS
Discover the story of Irish history and culture in the streets of the 'City of Light'
Discover Irish Paris – Fascinating, moving, surprising and different
On January 1st, 2021, the then Ambassador of France to Ireland, H.E. Mons.Guérend, said, "As of today, France is Ireland's closest EU neighbour. Lets work together for a strong, prosperous and United Europe". It was a reminder of the long bond that exists between both countries that is well established and famous: from the 'Wild Geese' and 'Wine Geese' to the Irish Brigades to Irish artists in Brittany and Paris to athletes at the Olympics and many a hard-fought rugby and soccer game. Today there is a rich and diverse economic, social, historical and cultural relationship between both countries. Many Irish people live and work in France and vice versa but it has surprised me that the connections with Paris and Ireland are not that well known though so many Irish people visit the city and study, live and work there too.
Paris offers a breathtaking range of beautiful streetscapes, history and culture, fine food and wine and an international experience unique in the world. It is rarely the focus for discovering the many places and people of Irish birth and descent whose connections with the city over centuries are extraordinary. This website wants to help you explore a different city where their stories come alive in the places they lived, worked and died and to offer a different perspective to anyone interested in Irish and French history and culture. If you have visited Paris maybe on a school trip from Ireland or as a tourist many times since and seen all the major monuments and landmarks over the years, and feel you have 'done' Paris, this site offers you a different and interesting 'take' on the city that will captivate and hopefully move you too.
Self-Guided Walking Tours of Irish-Paris
Uniquely, this site provides a range of Self-Guided Walking Tours that enable you to explore the city at your own pace and to encounter the stories of wandering Irish scholars and saints, churchmen, soldiers and revolutionaries, politicians and statesmen, writers and artists and characters, men and women no longer the talk of the town but who certainly made a mark in their day. As I explored these old historical connections, Irish people, like so many new immigrants, faced their fair share of destitution, poverty and suspicion in an unfamiliar town and country. It is important to remind ourselves of this. While we naturally celebrate those men and women who succeeded at so many levels of French society, in the arts and on fields of battle across the centuries, equally it is important to recall the forgotten and to mark their journey here. This too is part of the rich history of both countries.
If you want to get to know a city, you need to get out there and walk it.
And this is what this website enables you to do. Our self-guided walking tours encourage you to walk Paris even a little -maybe your hotel is on the route of some of these tours -and to really fix the story in the place. The tours are thematic or follow one individual's story in the city or cover a particular period. The site will develop other tours over time, with different themes and interests for you to choose from. The following pages provide more details. Fáilte Roimh! Bienvenue à Tous!
Right: One of the oldest Irish names in France with a surprising connection to Paris. Our tours will enable you to unlock this and other interesting stories.
Above: Place de la Sorbonne, 1973. A schoolboy's visit. What changes have taken place since that time in this little square! The carpark has been thankfully replaced with an open and inviting space to sit down and the monument to the French Philosopher, Auguste Comte (in the background here in front of the Sorbonne) has been moved to the lower left, in front of what was once the Cafe d'Harcourt with its own interesting connections to Oscar Wilde, Synge and Joyce. Tour 2025/1.
BEGINNINGS....
Paris has filled my life and imagination since I first came here on a school trip in 1973. I returned as an erstwhile student to study French in 1979 and again in 1980 and I have been a visitor and a researcher over many years since then. Over those years, I discovered surprising connections with Ireland but I could not find a comprehensive guide that connected up these historical and cultural 'dots' in any map of the city.
Around 2019 I decided to specifically research these stories in more detail with a view to sharing them in a practical way with people who may also be similarly smitten with Paris and it's Irish connections. Over time, I discovered these connections stretched back almost a thousand years and more. But how to make this incredible story accessible to anyone interested in Irish history and culture in a city already rich in history? And not just Irish history, but with French, British and American history too. Ireland may be an island but, as these tours reveal, that has never solely shaped the ambitions of its people.
So to try and put some shape on the individuals and their exploits here, I created several 'story-trails' that thematically connect up places and people across Paris through self-guided walking tours. I have spent many years walking, photographing, measuring distance and time in researching these in detail. It is always a work in progress and I hope through this website to develop a 'community of interest' in my topic and to engage with people who may be already researching, working, studying, living in or visiting the city to help develop these tours further. I hope you enjoy the adventure and I look forward to your feedback and contributions.
This project is dedicated on the Feast of St Brigid to all the women who gave, sustained and enriched my life.
Below: Mosaic of a Shamrock on rue de Castiglione, where the Aer Lingus and Bord Failte offices were once situated.
