Years of the French: why the Huguenots fled to Ireland

Analysis: about 10,000 Huguenots are thought to have come to Ireland in the late 17th century fleeing religious persecution in France

By Nora Baker, University of Oxford

You may have passed by the Huguenot cemetery in Dublin or you may have walked down French Church Street if you've been to Cork. But how much do we know about the individual lives and experiences of the people who fled here in the late 17th century?

The term 'Huguenot' is of uncertain origin, but it is generally taken to mean a French-speaking Protestant. In the mid- to late 1500s, France went through a period of great turmoil during what came to be known as the Wars of Religion between Catholics and Protestants. The St Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572 saw an estimated 5,000 Protestants killed, and the River Seine was said to have been dyed red with blood. Things calmed down a bit after 1598, when King Henri IV issued the Edict of Nantes, which gave Protestants the right to practise their religion.

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From RTÉ Radio 1's Documentary On One in 1985, remembering the Huguenots 300 years after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes

But less than a century later, Louis XIV – the ‘Sun King’ – revoked that right in 1685 and increased the persecution of the Huguenot population. Soldiers known as dragoons were sent to live with Protestant families to intimidate them into conversion. Some accounts from the time claim that these soldiers threatened tortured individuals, or ransacked family goods. Many Huguenots therefore tried to escape France, even though women faced imprisonment and men risked being enslaved on the King’s galley ships if they were caught.

In spite of the dangers, a number of French Protestants did succeed in making their way to other countries. In fact, it is thought that the modern English word ‘refugee’ comes from the French réfugié, used to refer to the Huguenots during this time. In many places throughout Europe, Huguenot refugees became known for their silk-weaving and watch-making skills. However, they were not always made to feel welcome in the places where they settled. A refugee named Jacques Cabrit in London, for example, wrote that people could tell that he and his friends were French from their dress, and so would insult and even throw punches at them in the street.

From RTÉ Archives, Bob Powell reports for RTÉ News on the renovation and reopening of the Huguenot cemetery on Dublin's Merrion Row in 1990

About 10,000 Huguenots are thought to have come to Ireland, mostly settling around Dublin, Cork, Portarlington and in Co Antrim and Co Down. Though the French quarter in Cork city held the highest concentration of the population in the county, some Huguenots also established themselves in Youghal. Jacques Fontaine, who was the minister of the French Church in Cork from 1694-1698, also later moved to Berehaven in the west.

Around 1708, Fontaine decided to move to Dublin, and picked a house for his family on St. Stephen's Green, though friends advised against moving in, as the house was rumoured to be haunted! Luckily, as Fontaine drily notes in his memoirs, he and his wife had never had any fear of evil spirits. It is revealed that there is, in fact, no paranormal activity afoot, but rather squatters hiding in the house who are behind the strange noises and goings-on. Their attempts to scare away the new owners do not succeed in frightening Fontaine’s wife, and she gains the upper hand.

It is worth noting that St. Stephen’s Green in those days was not the elegant central area it is today. Originally the site of a leper hospital in the Middle Ages, it was not until the 1660s that the land was enclosed with a wall, and it was only in the mid-18th century that it became quite built up with townhouses. Fontaine writes that his house was quite dilapidated when he first moved into it, though this did not stop him from repairing it and later running a school there for 14 years. Following his arrival, more and more Huguenot families came to live in the area, particularly on the south side. In fact, some parts of the square became so populated by this community that an area became known as ‘French Walk’.

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From BBC World Service's The Forum, who were the Huguenots?

Of course, it is well known that many other places in Dublin are called after Huguenot surnames, such as D'Olier Street and Fumbally Lane. The first public library in Ireland, Archbishop Marsh's Library, had a Huguenot refugee, Élie Bouhéreau, as its first librarian.

Though initially there were some tensions between the French refugees and the native Irish population, as it was feared that authorities planned to ‘replace’ the Irish with the French, many Huguenots in Ireland eventually intermarried with locals. There is a chance that you who are reading this may have some Huguenot ancestry. The writers Sheridan Le Fanu and Samuel Beckett were Huguenot descendants, and the La Touche family, who helped found the Bank of Ireland, were also French Protestants.

Of course, the Huguenots were not the only refugee group who came to Ireland in the past. In the early 1700s, the Palatines, refugees from modern-day Germany, also came here. In the 1940s, Ireland welcomed children from mainland Europe to recuperate after the Second World War, an undertaking that became known as ‘Operation Shamrock’. Part of what makes history so fascinating is to see how people with different backgrounds have left their marks on society.

Nora Baker is a PhD researcher and assistant lecturer at the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages at the University of Oxford.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ

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