Carcassonne has neolithic origins, but likely owes its original oppidum (town) name of Carsac (later Carcaso) to the Gauls, a Celtic people. The Irish journalist Seamus MacCall laments in a 1938 Irish Press article that “Carcassonne is still a Celtic city, and in Carcassonne is Tara, Cruachan, Cashel, and the rest, just as they might have been”. Irish, Anglo-Irish, and Anglo-Normans from Ireland have been popping in and out of Carcassonne for centuries: some who were good, and others who were unfortunately very, very bad… Here are some of the Ireland-Carcassonne links we have uncovered recently.
Serial conqueror Hugh de Lacy, 1st Earl of Ulster, appears in records as Ugues de Lasis or Hugues des Arcis as the one tasked with “cutting off the head of the dragon”, in other words Carcassonne, before its fall in 1209 during the Albigensian Crusade, although this appearance has been debated. However, de Lacy does appear again in Carcassonne in 1211, when he advises Simon de Montfort not to undergo a siege at Carcassonne and be trapped, but rather to transfer into a weaker castle (Casto Nova, or Castèl Nau d’Arri in Occitan) and thereafter come out and attack the besieging enemy. The book From Carrickfergus to Carcassonne: The Epic Deeds of Hugh de Lacy During the Albigensian Crusade edited by Duffy, O’Keeffe and Picard gives a lot more of the context to this story.
A Fr Thady Daly (b. 1656) was ordained as a priest in Carcassonne in 1686 by the Bishop of Carcassonne, Louis-Joseph de Grignan. He later became parish priest of Killeedy and Killagholehane, County Limerick, and lived in Banemore, Ashford in 1704.
We have written a longer article to follow on the Irish Dillon’s Regiment in Carcassonne in 1763, and also another on some of the prominent Dillons in France during the 18th and 19th centuries.
We have also written an article to follow about Irish woman Mary-Anne Lawless who in 1801 acquired and later drained the marshes at Marseillette, paving the way for crop growth in the area. Her daughter Maria-Frances married the Marquis de Bausset. Lawless bought the land from United Irishman John Tennent and Scottish Thomas Wilson, future second husband of (United Irishmen leader) Wolfe Tone’s widow Matilda.
The Bishop of Carcassonne Joseph-Julien de Saint-Rome Gualy wrote a letter to his parishioners, including elements of an encyclical from Pope Pius IX, to ask for prayers, alms and relief for Ireland in 1847 during the Great Famine, stating in stark terms that “Ireland was a vast tomb, in which thousands of unfortunate people were being buried every day, cut down by fever and famine”.
On 17th October 1897, Sister Mary Bridgit (Nora O’Sullivan of Adrigole, Skibbereen) made her final vows in the Convent of Carmelites, Carcassonne. In the sermon, a Carcassonne priest spoke of “the friendly relations which always subsisted between France and Ireland, of the deep debt of gratitude his countrymen still owed the latter country, and how in many days of disaster and defeat, the sons of the Emerald Isle had saved their forces from annihilation, and oft times crowned their banners with victory and glory.”
From Aude to Ireland, Ireland’s most famous French restaurant of the 20th century was established by the Saint-Julia-de-Bec-born Michel and François Jammet, whose mother was from a famous hatmaking family, the Bourrels of Quillan, Espèraza and Carcassonne.
The writer Lord Dunsany (Eddie Plunkett) brought readers to a fantasy version of Carcassonne in a short story written for his book A Dreamer’s Tales in 1910. The book is considered to have been a major influence on Tolkien, Lovecraft, Le Guin, and others.
Carcassonne-born journalist Simone Téry visited Ireland multiple times in the 1920s to report for newspapers on the War of Independence and the Civil War, writing two books on Ireland in the process (In Ireland: From the War of Independence to the Civil War (1914-1923) and The Island of Bards: Notes on Contemporary Irish Literature). “Téry is reputed to have been the only journalist, French or otherwise, to have ever interviewed [Michael] Collins”, and was a good friend of George Russell (Æ), according to Oliver O’Hanlon. Her father was teaching philosophy in Carcassonne during the time she was born.
Famed Irish sculptor Gabriel Hayes, a pupil of Seán Keating, visited various art centres and galleries in Languedoc including Carcassonne during the 1920s. She is also known as the creator of some 1971 coins in Ireland: the halfpenny, penny and two pence.
In 1933, 49-year-old pilgrim Seaghan E. Campbell from The Whins, Killiney walked for three months after departing from Ireland, through England, France (through Carcassonne) and into Italy (via Ventimiglia) towards Rome, walking the portion from Dublin to Lourdes barefoot.
Fortunat Strowski, Carcassonne-born professor of French literary history at the Sorbonne, came to UCC to give a guest lecture in 1934. Fortunat Joseph Strowski de Robkowa was born at 22 rue Armagnac.
It is reported in the Irish Times on 15th March 1940 that Carcassonne had as its fire chief a commandant by the name of Conroy. Any more information would be appreciated!
And during World War II, after hearing from Mayor Albert Tomey in November 1940 about the near famine conditions that were being experienced in Carcassonne and also the forced end of their school-feeding programme in both crèches and nursery schools, the Corkwoman Mary Elmes helped organise 50 days worth of food with the Quakers to be sent to children there, as described in Clodagh Finn’s biography of Elmes A Time to Risk All. Various letters between Mary Elmes and the Academy of Carcassonne as well as the Belgian Red Cross of Carcassonne regarding Belgian refugees, can be found in records in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives. According to Finn, and based on files in these records (box 1, folder 7, page 59), a local newspaper wrote an account of this generosity, giving thanks to the Quakers and to Mary Elmes in particular, and Mayor Tomey was said to be “profoundly touched” by the efforts.
Henri Jean Paul Manassero was born to Jean and Paule (Guiraud) Manassero in Carcassonne on 2nd July 1932. He married Moya Corrigan on 7th July 1962. He was General Manager of the Royal Hibernian Hotel, Dublin from 1963 to 1969, as well as President of the Irish Hotel and Restaurant Managers Association in 1969. The Irish Times in 1972 refers to “the very able Frenchman who became more Irish than the Irish (and married an Irish girl)”. He had an extensive hotel management career in Europe and the USA, including the Hotel Pierre in New York, and was awarded the French National Order of Merit (Chevalier) in 1985. He died in Nice on 28th September 2000 and he was buried in Limoux.
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