In the above photo my husband, Michel Noll, is surveying the grounds at the Irish Cultural Centre, 5 rue des Irlandais, 75005, Paris. On the lovely summer evening of 28th May 2026, the centre was preparing to host a drinks party to celebrate the inauguration of Michel's first Irish Documentary Film Festival in Paris, DocÉire.
Here is the link for DocÉire: https://www.ecransdesmondes.org/doceire-2026/
This was my first visit to the Irish Cultural Centre and it was a revelation to me. It is a marvellous address - and you can reserve rooms to stay there although, unfortunately, it was fully booked when I tried to make a reservation for us. The Centre Culturel Irlandais, the CCI, (or ICC in English), is Ireland's cultural flagship in Europe. It's a whopping piece of real estate in the heart of the 5th arrondissement in Paris, a five-minute walk from the Panthéon in this lively and historic area of the capital. It is also five minutes in the opposite direction to the splendid Jardin du Luxembourg. We much appreciated the park's proximity. It gave us perfect shade beneath centenarian trees during the warm weekend.
The CCI premises with its large grounds was purchased to house the Irish College. The Irish College began as a small group of founding members at the University of Paris. Louis XIV granted the Irish community its first permanent home in the city in 1677 on the rue des Carmes at the Collège des Lombards. In 1769, the college prefect Laurence Kelly acquired a townhouse with quite substantial grounds on the rue du Coeval Vert. This, after major refurbishments, became the new College des Irlandais, providing accommodation for both lay and clerical students from 1776 onwards. The Irish priests stayed on in residence at the College des Lombards.
Back home in English-controlled Ireland, during the reign of James Charles Stuart, known as King James VI (Scotland) and King James 1(England), the harsh Penal Laws: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_laws_(Ireland), which included severe restrictions on education for Catholics, meant that learning centres abroad became an imperative. A lifeline. The Penal Laws barred Catholics from political office and military service. Catholic Church property was transferred to the Anglican Church, Catholic masses in public were forbidden and a tax was imposed for non-attendance at Anglican services. The Penal Laws also confiscated the lands of Catholic landowners and expelled Catholic clergy from Ireland under pain of death. These super harsh laws meant that Irish Bishops were obliged to send their student priests out of Ireland for their ecclesiastical education. It was the expatriate seminarians who established the first Irish Colleges across Europe.
By the end of the 18th century, there were 34 centres across western and central Europe and they were known collectively as Irish Colleges, thriving in cities as distant as Prague, Lisbon, Madrid, Antwerp, Bohemia. The Irish College in Paris was the mother ship. It held great influence in France and Ireland and was a beacon to all the other colleges. And how enterprising of the Catholic Irish with help from the French establishment and royalty to create these learning centres.
During the Franco-Prussian war ( July 19, 1870 - May 10, 1871) the Irish College in Paris was converted into a hospital, offering board and medical care to three hundred French soldiers.
After World War II, in 1945, the premises served the United States army as a shelter for displaced persons claiming US citizenship.
At the end of 1945, the Poles established a seminary in the college and they remained there till 1997 when restoration work began.
In 2000, the Irish government announced funding of 14.5 million euros to create at the college a major cultural and educational centre in the heart of Europe that would offer, provide, a vision and profile of the personality of Ireland. The centre was inaugurated in 2002.
Today, there are two libraries within the complex. One is a Médiatèque and the other is the Old Library, which houses some 8,000 rare books and manuscripts. The Old Library can be visited by appointment. There is also the St Patrick chapel, named after the patron saint of Ireland. (Patrick, by the way, studied here in Cannes over on the l'île Saint Honorat, one of the Isles des Lérins.)
When Michel announced his intention to hold the first Irish documentary film festival in Paris, it was to the Cultural Centre he was directed. They put him in touch with a nearby small independent cinema, Les trois Luxembourg, who happily agreed to host the five-day event. Seven Irish documentaries were screened over the long weekend of May 28 to June 2. Each film was followed by a debate held in both French and English. Throughout the festival, all films were subtitled in French.
On the Sunday morning - the only screenings in Gaelic - we watched three short documentaries. The only Gaelic I speak are the few words remembered from my childhood taught to me by my late mother, Phyllis McCormack. It was a delight though to inhale the beauty of the language in the short docs even if I could not entirely follow the dialogue, except by reading the subtitles!
The seven full-length films were all very different and ranged in subject matter from modern-day Irish issues to historical themes. In many instances the directors, a handful of the cream of Irish documentary filmmakers, were present to participate in the after-screening debates which were lively, thought-provoking and great fun. The weekend felt like a true celebration of yet another branch of the arts the Irish excel at.
I was blessed with five English and Irish friends who travelled over from London and Cork to support us. We enjoyed late night dinners together beneath the stars after the films and discussions. Le Select, the very elegant American Bar and Brasserie opened in Montparnasse in 1923, is one of my personal favourites. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Jean Marais and Picasso were all frequent diners there.
The subjects on screen gave our guests and friends plenty to debate over delicious food. Ireland in, if not all of its extraordinary aspects, then certainly a wide variety of points of view. From a portrait of an IRA militant - was she a terrorist, heroine or a young woman radicalised? - to, on a lighter note, beating the Irish Lotto system, and many more touching and stimulating stories.
If you are interested in making a trip to Paris for the second festival of DocÉire, it will be held in the spring of 2027, again in Paris and again at Les Trois Luxembourg cinema, 67, rue Monsieur Le Prince, 75006, Paris. A bit later this year, keep an eye on the site www.ecransdesmondes.org for next year's details. The films are already promising to be fascinating.
Given that we were not able to find lodging at the ICC, I booked us instead into the Hôtel Madeleine de Senlis, 7 - 9 rue Malebranche, 75005, Paris. I wasn't acquainted with this small hotel before. It was recommended to us by Rosetta from the Irish Cultural Centre. Thank you, Rosetta, we will certainly be returning to this lovely hostelry, packed with history. Walk through its doors and you are immediately transported to a XIXth century Parisian salon. Whether Marcel Proust, Georges Sand, La Comtesse de Ségur among other nineteenth century luminaries really met here and debated in this salon, I don't know, but the welcome is stylish and delivers with grace the echoes of a lost literary Saint-Germain.
Outside our hotel, on the small section of the rue Malebranche that is pedestrian only, another inaugural event was taking place. Throughout the Saturday and Sunday a short story/novella festival was being held. It seemed fitting given that Proust had crossed these cobbles, although his most acclaimed work was a little longer than a novella!
Here is Michel during a break from his documentary film festival duties. He is sitting in the shade at the Luxembourg Gardens reading Le Monde. This stay we didn't have time but while in Paris the gardens are well worth a longer exploration. Aside from sitting, relaxing and just drinking in the beauty of the remarkable trees, there is the L'Orangerie, La Fontaine Médicis and then stroll about until you come face to face with the statue of Charles Baudelaire.
So, a long weekend in Paris never disappoints, does it? Especially if there is a fascinating Irish documentary film festival to draw you to the city. We sincerely hope to see some of you next year.
My latest published novel is ONE SUMMER IN PROVENCE.
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Have a wonderful summer
Carol
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