0:00:04 > 0:00:06HE SPEAKS IN IRISH
0:03:04 > 0:03:08We have a lot of French translations of Irish writers and the whole point
0:03:08 > 0:03:12of this collection is to make contemporary Irish culture
0:03:12 > 0:03:16accessible to the Irish in Paris, but also and mostly to the French.
0:03:16 > 0:03:21So, for instance, here we have poetry and this anthology...
0:03:21 > 0:03:26- Oh, yes.- ..holds a selection of Irish poets from the 20th century.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30They have the original texts and their French translation.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32For instance, here we have Beckett.
0:03:32 > 0:03:37I know this book because in fact I think I had translations of this,
0:03:37 > 0:03:40- of Gaelic poets towards the back here.- Yes, there are a few, yeah.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43That was a big exhibition in Paris, yes.
0:03:43 > 0:03:44Yes.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46HE READS IN IRISH AND FRENCH
0:03:48 > 0:03:51And it's great to have that facility to get the Irish language
0:03:51 > 0:03:54directly to the French or the Spanish or the Breton
0:03:54 > 0:03:56without going through English all the time,
0:03:56 > 0:03:58so it's a very good anthology.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00And to make it, yeah, accessible for the French public.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03Yes, yes, yes, yes. Very much so.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07HE SPEAKS IN IRISH
0:04:34 > 0:04:35Ah.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39HE SPEAKS IN IRISH
0:04:43 > 0:04:48So, this is one of the very few old libraries that still exist today
0:04:48 > 0:04:52from all those that you could find in this area of Paris
0:04:52 > 0:04:56in all the colleges and monasteries and convents.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59They all had their own libraries at the time
0:04:59 > 0:05:03at the end of the 18th century. Most of those have been lost or...
0:05:03 > 0:05:05Due to the French Revolution?
0:05:05 > 0:05:08Yes, but also if they still exist,
0:05:08 > 0:05:10they have been put into larger collections.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14This one has the privilege of being in its original site.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18HE SPEAKS IN IRISH
0:07:45 > 0:07:52This here is a manuscript copy of a letter of patent by Louis XIV.
0:07:52 > 0:07:57- Mm-hmm.- It dates from 1677 and by this letter,
0:07:57 > 0:08:04Louis XIV was allowing the Irish community to buy
0:08:04 > 0:08:06the College Des Lombards.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10It had been established in 1333,
0:08:10 > 0:08:14but less and less Italian students had been coming,
0:08:14 > 0:08:18so the bursaries from the Lombard College
0:08:18 > 0:08:24had been attributed to Irish students instead over the years.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28Louis XIV here is confirming that he allows the Irish community
0:08:28 > 0:08:33to buy this building and to repair it to be able to move in to it.
0:08:35 > 0:08:37HE SPEAKS IN IRISH
0:08:51 > 0:08:54It's the period during which the college goes through
0:08:54 > 0:08:55a kind of golden age.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58The college had been on very insecure foundations
0:08:58 > 0:09:00for much of the 17th century
0:09:00 > 0:09:02and it's really only with the establishment
0:09:02 > 0:09:06of the College Des Lombards as an Irish institution in the 1670s
0:09:06 > 0:09:10that the Irish acquire a secure permanent home in Paris.
0:09:13 > 0:09:15HE SPEAKS IN IRISH
0:10:52 > 0:10:56I mean, here we have this, like, sixth-century text,
0:10:56 > 0:11:00which turns up in Donegal in an old man's house in the 19th century
0:11:00 > 0:11:01and is brought here.
0:11:01 > 0:11:06What sort of journeys did the text have between its original, you know,
0:11:06 > 0:11:10penning and turning up at the Academy here in the early 19th century?
0:11:10 > 0:11:14Well, what we do know is it was taken to the continent
0:11:14 > 0:11:19for safekeeping around the 1690s.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22It was whisked out of the country
0:11:22 > 0:11:26in common with other manuscripts which had been taken out earlier,
0:11:26 > 0:11:28like the Book Of Lecan, for example -
0:11:28 > 0:11:31that went to the College Des Irlandais in Paris...
0:11:31 > 0:11:37- Yes.- ..and came back late in the 18th century.
0:11:37 > 0:11:39HE SPEAKS IN IRISH
0:13:16 > 0:13:19This is Andrew Dunleavy's Catechism,
0:13:19 > 0:13:23which is printed both in Irish and English
0:13:23 > 0:13:26and it was printed here in Paris in 1742.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29On the title page, you have both the Irish and the English.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32And it's very interesting there that this is the old Gaelic font
0:13:32 > 0:13:35that was designed here in Paris,
0:13:35 > 0:13:40and we can see also here that this book belonged to a John Lynch
0:13:40 > 0:13:44in the early 1800s, so obviously it was very much a working document
0:13:44 > 0:13:46and the binding, you know...
0:13:46 > 0:13:47It was fairly robust
0:13:47 > 0:13:50because it's lasted over half a century in his hands.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54Yes, and if we have a look at the pages,
0:13:54 > 0:13:58- we have the font here.- Yes.
0:13:58 > 0:14:00HE SPEAKS IN IRISH
0:14:46 > 0:14:52- And this volume is John O'Brien's Irish-English dictionary...- Oh, yes.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55..dating from 1768.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59It's the second Irish-English dictionary printed in Paris.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02There was a first one printed in 1732,
0:15:02 > 0:15:05but we don't have it in our collection.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08HE SPEAKS IN IRISH
0:15:44 > 0:15:46Dunleavy's Catechism is a tool
0:15:46 > 0:15:51designed to ensure that Irish Catholics retained their faith
0:15:51 > 0:15:54in a particularly difficult period.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58The dictionaries of the 1730s and the 1760s
0:15:58 > 0:16:01equally have, I think, a religious
0:16:01 > 0:16:04or a religiously-inspired element to them.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07Having said that,
0:16:07 > 0:16:11the Irish college in Paris authorities are very conscious,
0:16:11 > 0:16:14probably the whole way through the 18th century,
0:16:14 > 0:16:16that language is very important.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21HE SPEAKS IN IRISH
0:18:21 > 0:18:26When he died, then, the story is that his body was smuggled by night
0:18:26 > 0:18:30through Armagh and Tyrone and back to his homeplace,
0:18:30 > 0:18:32here at Desertcreat.
0:18:32 > 0:18:37His earthly remains have been resting here for almost 300 years.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40Well, David, you know, the Bard of Armagh,
0:18:40 > 0:18:43it'd be wonderful now if you could give us a little bar of the song.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46Oh, I wish I could but I'm allergic to singing.
0:18:46 > 0:18:48- As someone said, it brings me out in bruises.- Yes?
0:18:48 > 0:18:50I will play it for you, if you like?
0:18:50 > 0:18:52- That'd be fantastic, yes. - OK, let's do that.- Go ahead.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00So, this is the tune I first heard 40 years ago at school.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02- Bold Phelim Brady, the Bard of Armagh.- That's the one,
0:19:02 > 0:19:03that's the one.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07MUSIC: The Bard Of Armagh by Patrick Donnelly
0:19:36 > 0:19:39HE SPEAKS IN IRISH
0:20:36 > 0:20:42This letter actually is related to this building.
0:20:42 > 0:20:47It's a letter of patent from 1768 by Louis XV,
0:20:47 > 0:20:51allowing the Irish community to buy this building.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54The letter explains that the Irish community
0:20:54 > 0:20:58- made a request to the king to be able to buy a new house...- Yes.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00..in what they call the Quartier De L'Estrapade -
0:21:00 > 0:21:03which is the name of this area of Paris -
0:21:03 > 0:21:06because of the very poor living conditions
0:21:06 > 0:21:08in the College Des Lombards.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11They explain here that it was damp, it was too small
0:21:11 > 0:21:14and they also complain about bad smells
0:21:14 > 0:21:19- because there were apparently several butchers in the street.- Yes.
0:21:19 > 0:21:20That's mentioned here.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24The building here at the time was much smaller
0:21:24 > 0:21:27and so they bought the building and the grounds around it
0:21:27 > 0:21:30and they added two wings, including this one where we are now
0:21:30 > 0:21:32with the chapel and the library,
0:21:32 > 0:21:35before they were able to move in to the building.
0:21:35 > 0:21:40Also, what we see here, they mention the building
0:21:40 > 0:21:43on La Rue Du Cheval Vert - the street of the green horse,
0:21:43 > 0:21:47- literally.- Yes.- It was actually the name of the street here before
0:21:47 > 0:21:51and the street changed names in 1807
0:21:51 > 0:21:53and it became La Rue Des Irlandais.
0:21:53 > 0:21:57- Which is kind of a nice touch really because...- It was done....
0:21:57 > 0:22:00- It enshrines our presence here.- Exactly.
0:22:00 > 0:22:06It was changed following a request by the prefect of the college.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10I suppose the green horse had a kind of Irish connection too.
0:22:10 > 0:22:12Yeah, maybe somehow, yeah.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15HE SPEAKS IN IRISH
0:24:22 > 0:24:24So, this chapel here was built
0:24:24 > 0:24:28when the Irish seminary moved in to the building and so,
0:24:28 > 0:24:33- as I said earlier, we have the library just above the chapel.- Yes.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36- Here, you have the French fleur-de-lys...- Yes.
0:24:36 > 0:24:38..and the Irish shamrock
0:24:38 > 0:24:42and you have another version of them on those tiles.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44It's a kind of, like,
0:24:44 > 0:24:47a Hiberno-French identity they're creating here, in some ways.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51And we also have a statue of St Patrick
0:24:51 > 0:24:53and a portrait of St Bridget.
0:24:53 > 0:24:55Yeah, they're two of the main saints.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58We'll have to get some Colm Cille in here at some point,
0:24:58 > 0:25:00but no... These are the, kind of,
0:25:00 > 0:25:03the main male saint and the main female saint of Ireland.
0:25:03 > 0:25:04Yes.
0:25:05 > 0:25:07HE SPEAKS IN IRISH