Strong cultural, commercial, literary and intellectual links have existed for many centuries between the Celtic cousins France and Ireland and continue to flourish today. This book explores some of the connections that have been forged over space and time by groups and individuals travelling between the two countries. Covering subjects as varied as travel literature, music, philosophy, wine production, photography and consumer culture, and spanning the seventeenth through to the twenty-first centuries, the collection draws attention to the rich tapestry of interconnections and associations which confirm this unique and mutually beneficial friendship. The book examines the role of figures such as Boullaye-le-Gouz, Coquebert de Montbret, Sydney Owenson, Alain de Lille, Augusta Holmes, Alain Badiou, Wolfe Tone, Jacques Rancière, the 'Wine Geese', the O'Kelly family, Marguerite Mespoulet, Madeleine Mignon, Jules Verne, Hector Malot, Harry Clifton, John McGahern, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Kate O'Brien, John Broderick, Brian Moore and François Mauriac. The essays will appeal to both academic and general readers and to anyone with an interest in Franco-Irish relations.

Contents: Grace Neville: Things Fall Apart - Boullaye-le-Gouz, An Angevin Traveller to Ireland in 1644 - Jane Conroy: Time and the Traveller: The Case of Coquebert de Montbret - Jeanne Lakatos: Sydney Owenson and Alain de Lille: Traversing Philosophical Terrains in France and De Planctu Naturae - Mary Pierse: Close Connections: Nationalism and Artistic Expression in the Opere of Sydney Owenson/Lady Morgan and Augusta Holmes - Eugene O'Brien: The Year(s) of the French: The French Revolution as a Spatio-Temporal Event - Brian Murphy: Appellation 'Éire' Contrôlée: Historical Links Between France's Wine Heritage and Ireland - Axel Klein: Qualité d'Irlandais: The O'Kelly Family in Nineteenth-Century French Musical Life - Catherine Maignant: Reimagining Ireland through Early Twentieth-Century French Eyes - Lauren Clark: Children, 'The Charity Myth' and Victorian Consumer Culture: Jules Verne and Hector Malot's Franco-Irish Foundlings - Benjamin Keatinge: 'The clouds of Ireland gathered over France': Harry Clifton's Secular Eden - Raymond Mullen: 'How Can Time be Gathered in and Kissed?': The Phenomenology of Memory in John McGahern's That They May Face the Rising Sun - Eamon Maher: 'Beware the Hypocrites and the Pharisees!': François Mauriac's Impact on Some Twentieth-Century Irish Novelists.