Graham Greene, Ireland and the Honorary Consul

Preface by Eamon Maher

There are times when being General Editor of a book series provides opportunities to publish work in areas that are close to one’s heart. This is certainly the case with Pierre Joannon’s insightful description of the special friendship between himself and the renowned English Catholic writer Graham Greene (1904–1991), which I saw immediately as being a great fit for Studies in Franco-Irish Relations series, mainly because Pierre Joannon has been such a powerhouse and promoter of Irish Studies in France over several decades, but also because of my life-long interest in Graham Greene.

However, before extolling some of the obvious merits of this publication, I think it is important to share with you the multiple achievements of its author, who is really someone whose contribution to strengthening Franco-Irish links is of inestimable value to the smaller of these two Celtic cousins. It is only fitting that this work resulted in Pierre being given Irish citizenship in 1997 and receiving France’s highest award, the Légion d’Honneur, in 2002. His Histoire de l’Irlande et des Irlandais (2006) is considered compulsory reading for any French person seeking to understand Irish history and its people. He has also published the only biographies in French of Michael Collins and John Hume, as well as a host of other books, most notably in terms of the present study, two key publications dealing with the close ties with Ireland of famous French figures Charles de Gaulle¹ and Michel Déon.² He also wrote a brilliant evocation of the capital city of Ireland entitled Il était une fois Dublin³ and was co-editor, with Kevin Whelan, of Paris, Capital of Irish Culture, the proceedings of two conferences held in Dublin and Paris, which were published by Four Courts Press in November 2017.⁴ This is just a sample of the work that Pierre has done; indeed, the whole Preface could be given over to describing all of them and their significance.