Paper 184
Lecture – 1995
Author – Bourke, Stephanie
A detailed account of the evolution of the Irish Colleges on the Continent, with particular reference to the history of the Irish College in Paris. The practice of ‘colleges’ or groups of Irish students and scholars living and sometimes studying together on the Continent of Europe began in the 16th century. The Irish College in Paris knew several ‘homes’ in the 16th and 17th centuries. The present Irish College is located on a street renamed in 1807 the ‘Rue des Irlandais’, in deference to that presence.
Based on material from the archive of the College, this paper traces the history and fortunes of the building and the life of its inmates over a period of two hundred years. The author was Administrator of the College for five years and sets its growth against the social and cultural changes in France and Ireland since the middle of the 16th Century. Very helpful Bibliography of Primary and Secondary sources, the latter containing English and Irish material.
