The Frenchwoman who fell in love with Ireland and Irish republicans

Irish Times

05-05-2025

Irish history and politics fascinated Frenchwoman Étiennette Beuque. She took such an interest in Irish affairs in the 1920s and 1930s that she wrote several books about Ireland. Published in Paris, these included books of non-fiction, novels of fiction, and a poetry collection.
The Easter Rising and the War of Independence seemed to spark her interest in Ireland. Several key personalities of that time such as Terence MacSwiney and Éamon de Valera caught her imagination and prompted her to research Irish history (particularly the historical relationship to Britain) and write about contemporary Irish politics.
One of her first books was published in Paris in 1924. Entitled Pour l'Irlande (For Ireland), it was relatively short at just 110 pages but it set out her political outlook as an Irish republican sympathiser.
A photograph of de Valera appeared at the start of the book with the caption 'President of the Irish Republic'. It was prefaced by Leopold Kerney, who had been appointed by Arthur Griffith in 1919 as the Irish commercial representative in Paris. Kerney opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty and left that office in 1923. However, he remained in Paris as the republican Dáil's representative.
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Obviously delighted with Beuque's preference for his kind of politics, Kerney was full of praise for the French writer. He said that she 'has so well understood the Irish soul'. He hoped that the book would 'tear the dark veil of lies that has up to now hidden the truth to the French people about Ireland'.
The book opened with an homage to Terence MacSwiney, the Sinn Féin lord mayor of Cork who died on hunger strike in Brixton prison in October 1920. MacSwiney was never far from Beuque's thoughts. In a letter to de Valera, she described MacSwiney as 'my hero' and had even planned to write a biography of the late lord mayor.
If she admitted that MacSwiney was her hero, it is also clear from what she has written about Ireland that de Valera was another one of her heroes. Several of her books were dedicated to him (complete with effusive praise) and he even wrote the preface to one of them.
The Easter Rising was a central theme in her two fiction books. They were heavy on history, if a little light on style. In a review of one of her books on the Rising, a journalist in the Irish Press claimed that the French writer 'shows a knowledge of Irish personages and places so thoroughly informed that it would put many half-knowing Irishmen to shame'.
Ultimately, however, they found that it was 'very interesting as history, but hardly as fiction'.
One of the ways in which Beuque informed herself on the subjects of Irish history and politics was to write to those who had knowledge or experience of them. As we can see from some of the collections in the National Library of Ireland, she had a healthy correspondence with a number of Irish politicians and political activists.
These included Mary MacSwiney (sister of Terence), the republican TD Austin Stack, Art O'Brien (who had been the First Dáil's London representative) and Florence O'Donoghue (who had been a member of the anti-Treaty IRA).
She frequently addressed her correspondent with the Irish language salutation 'a chara' and sometimes signed off with 'mise le meas more [sic]'. Her letters also show that she called her home in Paris 'Vert Erin', yet another sign of her avowed Hibernophilia.
While on a visit to France in April 1938, the writer and republican activist Dorothy Macardle visited Beuque in 'Vert Erin'. Instead of a chic Parisian dwelling, Macardle found a little piece of Ireland in the French capital.
Photographs of Cathal Brugha, Erskine Childers and Terence MacSwiney adorned the wall of her office, prompting Macardle to say that 'Mademoiselle Beuque's study is a little Irish republic'. The writing desk was covered in an orange, white and green embroidered cloth and recent editions of the Irish Press, the newspaper founded by de Valera in 1931, sat alongside a range of books on Ireland.
Beuque was not a journalist or a professional writer, yet she managed to produce a wealth of material to promote Irish independence and support Irish republicans at a time when they needed publicity. Her writing reached a wide international audience as her books were reviewed in French, Swiss and Irish newspapers, as well as in French literary and academic journals.
However, when I spoke about Beuque's love affair with Ireland at a recent Irish Studies conference in Cork, very few had heard of her. The conference was organised by Hélène Lecossois of Sofeir, the French Society of Irish Studies, and Heather Laird of the Department of English in UCC under the theme of Ireland and Transnational Solidarities. Topics covered ranged from Palestine and India to herbal medicine and surfing.