Prof Paul Brennan, a leading figure in Irish studies for the past three decades, died unexpectedly of heart failure after his daily run through the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris on November 10th. He was 64 years old.
As Professor of Irish Civilisation at the University of Paris III, he oversaw the master's and doctoral degree programmes in Irish studies. During his two consecutive terms as president of the inter-university Société Française des Études Irlandaises, the number of French students enrolling in Irish studies more than doubled.
He edited the review Études Irlandaises for most of the 1990s and remained on its editorial board. He was a familiar figure on French radio and television and was asked by French newspapers to explain events like the Belfast Agreement and the Nice Treaty referendum.
Brennan directed a very large number of doctoral theses and took a keen interest in his students' subsequent careers. He did his utmost to promote contacts between Irish and French academics and was at the time of his death organising a colloquium on "The Internationalisation of Ireland" to have been held at the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris in mid-December. Nine Irish doctoral candidates and 12 French graduate students were to have read papers.
Throughout his career, Paul Brennan wrote and lectured widely in English and French on the evolution of the Irish Constitution, the place of Ireland in Europe, poverty and inequality in Ireland. He was passionately interested in the Northern Ireland peace process and travelled to Belfast to meet republican and unionist politicians.
He long served as a link between French academe and the Irish College and appealed early on for the college to be open to Northern Protestants. "I found his approach [to Northern Ireland] absolutely balanced, extremely sensitive," said his close friend and colleague, Prof Wesley Hutchinson.
"He tried to make sure that the whole of Ireland was represented, in all its diversity."
In addition to his pivotal role in Irish studies, Brennan was an important figure in the French educational system. He sat on two senior national recruitment bodies for secondary and higher education (CAPES and CNU) and was appointed by the Ministry of Education to co-ordinate a nationwide re-examination of foreign-language curricula. This year he published recommendations for the teaching of regional languages such as Corsican, Basque and Breton.
His commitment to socialism was forged in the "events" of May 1968, during which he and his French bride, Nicole (née Canterot) both demonstrated. "We were very enthusiastic," she recalled. "It shaped our values."
Brennan became the Paris secretary for the education branch of the Socialist trade union CFDT. Though disillusioned with French party politics in recent years, he continued to vote Socialist and never abandoned trade-union activism.
A convinced European, Brennan did much to promote student exchanges under the EU's Erasmus programme and visited "his" students in Ireland each spring.
Paul Brennan came to France in 1963, at the age of 24, after earning a bachelor's degree in history at University College Galway. He met his wife, Nicole, now a professor of philosophy, at her sister's wedding in 1965. They married six months later. The Brennans adopted their son, Philippe, in 1972 and doted on their grandson, who was born in December 2000.
Paul and Nicole Brennan spent summers at Currawee, Lettermullen, Connemara, in their two-storey house facing the Aran Islands. Nicole painted and gardened; Paul cooked. Every August they held a party for dozens of French, American and Irish guests. Though the Brennan family were scattered, all of his seven brothers and sisters attended.
To his students and fellow academics, Paul Brennan was warm and hospitable. But he did not suffer fools gladly. "He had a great sense of humour, which went with a sense of distance," Prof Hutchinson said. "He would size people up very rapidly, with a twinkle in his eye."
His younger brother, Brendan, a civil servant who kept the professor supplied with news of Ireland, recalls his "flowing hair, flamboyance, good looks and charm." You couldn't help noticing his smart tweed suits, his blue and purple silk shirts. "Most people couldn't wear the clothes he wore, but he wore them with such elegance and panache," Brendan Brennan recalled.
At the end of September the brothers parted in a Paris boulevard. "As he sauntered away, he looked as if Paris was his world, his oyster. He was smoking a cigarillo; he was alive, happy. That was the last time I saw him."
Paul Brennan's funeral Mass took place at Saint-Sulpice Church in Paris on November 13th. He is to be buried on Monday at New Cemetery in Galway, near the graves of his parents, Patrick and Margaret.
He is survived by his wife, Nicole, their son Philippe and his partner Cristelle, and grandson Maxime Ulysse.
Paul Brennan: born June 24th, 1939; died November 10th, 2003