I recently did a short radio interview with MJ Clery on the programme 'Country Life' on Midlands 103 about the RTÉ Brainstorm article I wrote on the Irish restaurant in Paris known as La Ferme Irlandaise. You can listen back to the interview here.
It's great to see that there is an interest in this relatively unknown chapter in Irish food history and Franco-Irish relations. Thanks to MJ Clery for the invite to take about my research on the show.
La Ferme Irlandaise was an Irish restaurant in the heart of Paris. It served Irish food and the staff who were there were Irish. I have just written a short article on RTÉ Brainstorm about the restaurant. Read it here.
The restaurant was the brainchild of Paddy O'Keeffe who was Chairman of investment cooperative Farmers' Business Developments (FBD) and editor of the Irish Farmers' Journal. Myrtle Allen of Ballymaloe Restaurant acted as an advisor for the restaurant. The classically-trained chef Peter Robinson ran the restaurant for the first couple of years from its opening in November 1979 until 1981.
It was then taken over by Myrtle Allen who sent staff from Ballymaloe to run the restaurant in Paris. She traveled over to the restaurant every few weeks to make sure that it was running smoothly. The decor and menu changed when she took over and it became even more 'Irish' than it had been.
The new menu included a full Irish breakfast of sausages, bacon and eggs, which was very popular with the customers. They also served dishes such as Shangarry beef and Guinness pie and Irish lamb with mint and butter sauce. The Allens ceased to be involved in La ferme irlandaise in 1985 and the restaurant closed in 1987. It remains one of the most novel and interesting showcases for Irish food and Irish cooking on the continent in recent times.
Thanks to Bryan Barry of FBD and John McCullen for their assistance in writing the article.
Every year on 14 July (Bastille Day), the French embassy in Ireland organises a wreath laying ceremony to remember the Irish who fought in France. It takes place at the dedicated France-Ireland Monument in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.
After the ceremony, an Irish recipient of the French national order of merit, the Légion d'honneur, is remembered with a wreath laying ceremony at their graveside. This year, it was Liam Ó Briain (1888-1974) who was remembered and I was asked to say a few words about him.
I was pleased to be asked to speak and share the information that I had learned about him in my research. He was passionate about the Irish language and did his best to revive it, notably through founding Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe, Ireland's national Irish language theatre. He was Professor of Romance Languages in what is now University of Galway for over 40 years and translated many works from French into Irish including plays by Henri Ghéon, Pierre Jalabert and Molière.
If you would like to find out more about him, a good place to start would be the Dictionary of Irish Biography and Ainm.ie.
