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.
I was greatly honoured that Professor Fréchet should take an interest in my work. Commenting on my Identity of Ulster, published under my own imprint, Pretani Press in 1982. he was to write:
“What an interesting, curious piece of work this is. Generally, if we are told it is not a question of a war of religion in Ulster, we are told about opposition between Catholics, whom people think of as mostly wishing for the unification of the island, and Protestants who want to remain British.
Adamson however, does not militate in favour of the bringing together of two quite distinct communities. He says that their division is artificial, that they are all more or less descendants of pre-Celtic peoples, and in particular of the Cruthin, who were constantly moving backwards and forwards between Ulster and Scotland, where they were called Picts, a fact that did not prevent their homeland becoming the most Gaelic part of Ireland. “British”, as far as he is concerned, takes on a meaning that Ulster people tend to forget.
Here are some interesting phrases for comparison. “Old British” was displaced in Ireland by Gaelic just as English displaced Gaelic”; “the people of the Shankill Road speak an English which is almost a literal translation of Gaelic”; “the majority of Scottish Gaelic speakers are Protestants”. In fact the author is especially interested in Protestants, but those Protestants who have worked or are working towards reconciliation (could these even be the United Irishmen of the 1790’s), for a co-operative movement, for a kind of popular autonomy or self-management. He shows the paradoxical confusion of antagonistic, partly mythical traditions, and is trying to convince people of the fundamental unity of Ulster”.
In the chapter The Language of Ulster in this book, I set out my vision for the future of our several languages and their variants, as part of an attempt to foster a common identity in Ulster to take our people beyond the religious divide. Little did I realise the extent of hostility this would engender, not among the ordinary people, but by a section of the academic establishment in Northern Ireland .
To be continued