In his obituary, Mark Mortimer, who had taught at the British Institute in Paris for some thirty years, was to say that René Fréchet was for many years the voice of Ireland in Paris. This was by no means an exaggeration. Professor of English at the Sorbonne, and the spirit behind the University’s Institute of Irish Studies, set up in 1979, Fréchet served as guide and councillor to the increasing number of students engaged in research into Irish themes. His Histoire de l’Irlande (Paris, PUF, 1970) was only one facet of his numerous activities in the field of Irish studies.
Apart from his love of Irish literature – his translation of the poetical works of Yeats (Paris, Aubier, 1989) is a model of precision and sensibility – he followed closely events in Northern Ireland which he covered in a series of often outspoken articles published in the French Protestant weekly, Réforme. An acute knowledge of facts as well as an indefectible affection for every aspect of life in the region guided his particular interest in the North. As a young lecturer he had spent two years at Queens’ University Belfast. The experience he acquired, and the long-lasting friendships he made at that time gave him an indisputable authority to comment on developments in the political situation there. There is no doubt that it was through him that the point of view of the Ulster Protestant found its most articulate and sympathetic spokesman in France. His convictions and courageous declarations did much to counter-balance the often superficial representations of this community in the mainstream French press.
To be continued