Martine Moreau, a Dublin arts scene regular, returns to Paris after 30 years observing Irish cultural life, writes Michael Dwyer
Most people who frequent Dublin's cinemas, theatres, galleries and concert venues may not know Martine Moreau by name, but many of them will know her to see. In the 30 years she has lived in Dublin, working in the cultural service of the French embassy, she has consumed the arts with a passion, attending different shows and events on average five nights a week over those three decades.
Sadly, for all the many friends she made here, she returns home to Paris on Thursday to start a new job. She spent the Christmas holiday period packing.
"My packing is huge after 30 years," she laughs. "I have 21 boxes of books, four with tapes and three with videos, and I haven't started on my CDs yet. Fortunately, I don't have any furniture to send."
She has mixed feelings about leaving Dublin, having immersed herself in the city's life and culture for so long. "I felt it was time for a change," she says. "There is some excitement because it involves starting something new, but I feel so sorry to leave all my friends here. But this is not the end. I will come back, and with the Internet and e-mail, it's very easy to stay in touch with everyone."
Born in Paris, she was an only child. Her first job was in Paris, at the age of 19, as an assistant to the directors of an electronics firm. "I knew I could not see myself working at the same routine every day up to the age of 65," she says. "It was interesting in the sense of seeing how a firm works, but I did not want to spend my whole life working there. I wanted to spend a year in another country and I decided to come to Dublin." Not surprisingly, given that she is such an avowed cineaste, it was a movie that attracted her to Ireland in the first place. "I came here on holidays in 1971 because I had seen Ryan's Daughter, and I thought the landscapes were so beautiful," she says.
She was employed as an au pair at the Monkstown home of Fianna Fáil senator Neville Keery, his wife and children. "I was extremely lucky to get a job with a family I liked very much, and I am still in contact with them. I started working for them in September 1972 and I was still with them in May 1973 when the general election was taking place. They were not there all the time, so I had to answer the phone a lot. After just six months in Ireland, I knew more about Irish politics than about French politics."
When her mother died in 1973 - her father had died six years earlier - Martine decided not to return to live in Paris. "I found a job in the Belgian embassy in Dublin," she says, "and then the cultural counsellor at the French embassy rang me up and asked me if I wanted to work with him." She started working there on November 1st, 1974. "I dealt mainly with the arts and I was the secretary to the cultural counsellor as well," she says. "I dealt with the accounts, official orders and reports, sometimes confidential." She served with 11 French ambassadors and nine cultural counsellors during those 30 years at her office in the Alliance Française building on Kildare Street.
"The reason I fell in love with Ireland was first of all, because everything is easy, or was easy, and still is easier compared to France," she says.
"Here, if you go to a ministry and ask for something, you are always well received, whereas it was not always the case in France.
"Another reason was that everyone was calling you 'love' - you know, 'Hello, love', 'Yes, love'. Very informal, and there were no social barriers. It amazed me in the beginning to see an Irish government minister sitting beside his driver rather than in the back seat of the car.
"I also had the opportunity of living for a while in a bed-sit. When I came here I didn't know what a bed-sit was, and I was surprised when neighbours would call at the door, looking for milk. I liked that, because in France you didn't even know your neighbours. Ireland is a bit like that now, of course, especially those new blocks of flats where people are coming and going the whole time.
"I also liked being here because, working in the cultural service, you get to meet a lot of very interesting people. The Irish people, especially in the arts, were extremely nice to me." It is a testimony to all the friendships she formed with people she met in the arts - and in cinema and theatre queues - that so many of them turned out for the farewell party she recently hosted for about 100 guests, many of whom, among them broadcaster John Kelly and former Dublin Theatre Festival director Tony O'Dalaigh, paid tribute to her at that convivial gathering.
Looking back over her years here, she recalls the 1970s as a vibrantly creative period, singling out the Project Arts Centre. "It was fantastic to see all those artists at work, and you know, my first U2 concert was in the Project. And I loved the Dandelion market and all the characters on Grafton Street.
"Then, to see Planxty when they started and to see them again recently, 22 years later, was very special and it made me feel like I really belonged with the people of Dublin. I think I've seen Van Morrison in concert about 15 or 20 times. My other favourite singers are Bob Dylan - I've seen him about 11 or 12 times, the last time in Galway - and Leonard Cohen, whom I first saw in concert in Paris in 1972 and again two more times, but he doesn't tour very much." She speaks with admiration for developments in the visual arts - citing the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Hugh Lane Gallery and the Douglas Hyde Gallery - and in theatre, where she saw "so many great plays", her favourites being The Faith Healer, The Great Hunger, Observe the Sons of Ulster and The Gigli Concert, along with the work of the newer generation of playwrights - Mark O'Rowe, Conor McPherson, Jimmy Fay, Gavin Quinn, Declan Hughes, Michael West and Annie Ryan. "It will be very interesting to see what they are doing later on," she says.
"In film I'm very fond of the Dublin Film Festival because I was here for the first festival in 1985, which was great," she adds. "My favourite Irish film would be The Crying Game. There was another Neil Jordan film, The Miracle, and the American lady in the film could have been any nationality, the way she fell in love with Ireland, the musicians and the charm. I saw it with another French girl and we came out and said, 'That's it, it's us.'" Martine doesn't drive and has always lived close to the centre of Dublin - in Percy Place, Pembroke Road, Dame Street. "In the 1970s it was very easy. You could go back home at three in the morning without being bothered, without wondering about the person walking behind you." She starts her new job in Paris on Monday. "I will be working in the Department of Foreign Affairs, in the sciences section. It's different and it's not different, because it will involve dealing with inviting researchers and scientists rather than artists and writers.
"I've had my own flat in Paris for 30 years, renting it to so many different people, so I will be moving in there. It's very central, in the 12th district near where the Cinematheque Française will be from September, so that will be my second home, the way the Irish Film Institute was for me in Dublin.
"I have had so many letters and e-mails and presents since I told everyone I was going back to Paris. I loved being part of the theatre community in Dublin, and the cinema community and the music community. I've had 32 years of discovery here and I will always keep an eye on Ireland. I will now be coming back to Dublin for my holidays."
