Many Irish immigrants lived and contributed to French culture and history during this period. Some even managed to conceal their Irish ancestry by adopting French-sounding names and adopting names with French sounds that provided cover from civil and religious authorities.
Huguenots fled persecution in 17th-century France for Ireland, the Netherlands, Cape Colony and Switzerland – where some descendants such as Sheridan Le Fanu and 20th-century Irish politician Sean Francis Lemass became famous figures.
Huguenots
Calvinism quickly found an audience in France during the 1540s, prompting church structures to emerge based on Genevan consistories with local councils overseeing church matters and national synods settling any disagreements in doctrine. Huguenots also introduced more formal educational systems.
Tensions between Catholics and Protestants escalated during the French Wars of Religion, culminating in the massacre of Huguenots on St Bartholomew’s Day 1572. Finally, King Louis IX issued the Edict of Nantes that guaranteed religious tolerance to Protestants.
Louis XIV reversed the Edict of Nantes and persecution resumed, forcing many Huguenots to flee into England and Ireland where many became very successful businesses by importing wines and setting up milling industries – one such Huguenot descendent was Sean Francis Lemass who served as Taoiseach (Prime Minister) from 1959-1966 – this caused them to popularize the term ‘refugee” into English usage during their settlement process in Britain Isles.
Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest began in 1066 when Viking descendants led by Duke William le Conqueror defeated Anglo-Saxon nobles and petty kings who had long ruled England. This event transformed its social structure for generations to come.
Normans brought with them their motte and bailey castles, which encouraged settlement in Irish towns like Dublin, Kilkenny, Clonmel and Galway. Additionally, this period saw Ireland’s first cut stone churches, bridges and cathedrals being constructed.
One of the greatest effects of John’s conquest was its effect on English as it changed from solely an Anglo-Saxon tongue into a creole language shared between different groups with elements from both. This allowed conquerors a new means of communicating with their Saxon subjects – the pidgen created with serfs would later form the basis of modern English; John himself used this creole language when signing Magna Carta in 1215.
New France
Giovanni da Verrazano’s sailing of his ship around North America in 1524 marked the dawn of a revolutionary concept: that of an independent France located across an ocean from France itself. This “New France,” also referred to as Nova Gallia, eventually took shape as trading colonies founded by French traders around Quebec City and Montreal on the St Lawrence River as well as Acadia, Hudson Bay and west of Mississippi; today known as Louisiana.
Even though New France never became a prosperous colony, its influence spanned wide areas of North America which it ceded to Great Britain via the Treaty of Paris (1763). This dissertation shows how connections formed during this key moment – through campaigns of propaganda, coordination, spying and even infiltration of British government institutions – continued through to Irish independence war.
Quebec
Quebec, as the most populous province of Canada, boasts an eclectic culture that attracts tourists from across North America and abroad. Quebecers take great care in maintaining French traditions that help form its distinctive society.
Many Irish have also contributed to Quebec’s cultural heritage. Father Henri-Raymond Casgrain and Bishop Camille Roy sought to produce literature which captured what they saw as being essential to French Canadian society.
At the turn of the 19th century, Irish settlers often mixed with French-Canadians in rural communities that were predominantly Catholic and frequently affiliated with local French parishes. Over time they would build their own churches and welcome Irish Priests from seminaries back home; their influence on Quebec culture has been far wider than might initially appear – leaving behind music, art, and social institutions that continue today.