A German and a Frenchman. First the German, whose contacts with this country may not be great, though he has been here, lecturing and selling his very striking engravings. he is Gunter Grass, and a weekly German broadsheet newspaper thought so much of the fact that he was 70 years of age this week that it devoted almost the whole of its front page to a huge picture of him, slant eyes looking mischievous, half-moon glasses almost down to his huge moustache, with a long article which went on to another page. You could say another Irish connection might be that he has done for Danzig (now Gdansk) what Joyce has done for Dublin. Also that he shares with Joyce an individual bending of vocabulary and a touch of the wild fancy. Pantagruelism at times.
The Frenchman had a much more direct effect on this country. Philippe Viannay created new and useful organisations, usually aimed at helping youth. Among his many brainchildren was "Journalistes en Europe," by which annually some 30 journalists, not beginners, are elected from countries around the world, to spend a year, based in Paris but roaming widely, learning not only more about the peoples of Europe and beyond, but learning from each other. Ireland has done well from it. Viannay had a soft spot for the Irish, and indeed with his vivacity, inventiveness, warmth and adaptability, he could have been an honorary Irishman.
He loved to share. And when, after the second World War, in which he led a resistance group, he found the freedom of the seas, learning from scratch, he wanted to share that great adventure with others and he founded the Glenans sailing clubs (Centre Nautique de Glenans), named after a tiny group of islands where he started sailing, just south of Brittany. And the point we are coming to is that the Irish centre's 1,200 members are celebrating the Golden Jubilee this year, for 1947 was the founding year in France. (In Ireland, it was established in 1969.) Anyway there is a big coming together in the Corrib Great Southern Hotel, November 14th to 16th, with the a.g.m. on Saturday 15th followed by a reception and a gala banquet. Sail on, sail on, Franco-Hibernian amity. Y