Inaugurated in 2002, the Centre Culturel Irlandais is situated in the Collège des Irlandais, or Irish College, formerly home to a large collegiate community of Irish priests, seminarians and lay scholars whose origins stretch back to 1578.
Inaugurated in 2002, the Centre Culturel Irlandais is situated in the Collège des Irlandais, or Irish College, formerly home to a large collegiate community of Irish priests, seminarians and lay scholars whose origins stretch back to 1578.
Fr. John Lee of Waterford is credited with the founding of the first Irish collegiate community abroad in 1578 when six students under his tutelage entered the Collège de Montaigu in the University of Paris. Louis XIV granted the Irish community its first permanent home in 1677 on the rue des Carmes at the Collège des Lombards.
In 1769, their prefect Laurence Kelly, acquired a townhouse and grounds on the rue du Cheval Vert. Following major refurbishment and extension of the building, the new Collège des Irlandais came into being, providing accommodation for both lay and clerical students from 1776 onwards; the Irish priests stayed on at the Collège des Lombards.
Counter-Reformation requirements to set up Catholic seminaries and restrictions placed on education for Catholics in Ireland by the Penal Laws meant that by the end of the 18th century, approximately thirty colleges had been established in university towns such as Louvain, Lille, Lisbon, Prague, Salamanca and Rome. The Irish College in Paris became the most important, not only in terms of the numbers of students it accommodated, but also in its influence in France and Ireland.
For most of the 19th and 20th centuries the college resumed its role as seminary to Irish - and latterly Polish – students. It survived the Franco-Prussian war, during which it was converted into a hospital to accommodate three hundred French soldiers, and the two World Wars. The premises served the United States army in 1945 as a shelter for displaced persons claiming American citizenship. The Polish seminary in Paris established itself in the Collège des Irlandais in 1945 and remained there until 1997.
The Irish government announced initial funding for the restoration of the building in 2000 (the final sum being €14.5 million) and expressed the desire that it become a major cultural and educational centre, a flagship building in the heart of Europe, providing a vision and profile of the personality of Ireland.
The inauguration of the Centre Culturel Irlandais in 2002 once more placed 5 rue des Irlandais in the vanguard of the development of Franco-Irish relations within an international context.
A selection of publications about the history of the builiding is available at the Médiathèque including The Heritage of the Centre Culturel Irlandais (2019), on sale there.
You can download and read the essay The Irish Colleges in Paris, 1578 - 2002 (2012) by Dr. Liam Chambers.
Erected in 1775 as home to the large collegiate community, the building, including the Old Library and St Patrick’s Chapel, was completely restored between 1997 and 2002.
In 1769, the prefect of the Irish collegiate community in Paris, Laurence Kelly, acquired a town house on the rue du Cheval Vert and transferred ownership of the building to the community of students. The prominent architect François Joseph Bélanger is believed to have overseen the demolition of part of the existing townhouse to make way for an imposing college building - a fifteen bay, four-storey structure with two wings on the garden front. It opened as the Collège des Irlandais in 1776. After the tumultuous period of the Revolution, the College was reopened under the auspices of the Fondation Irlandaise and the superior, Jean-Baptiste Walsh, persuaded Napoleon to change the name of the road to rue des Irlandais by a prefectural decree of 1807.
In a state of disrepair by the end of the twentieth century, the Irish government funded the complete restoration of the building in order to launch the Centre Culturel Irlandais in 2002.
Dedicated to Ireland’s patron saint St. Patrick, the chapel was built for the religious needs of the collegial community – the pews are thus facing each other rather than looking towards the altar.
The original paintwork was replaced c. 1860 with the highly decorative interior that has survived up to the present day. The acoustics lend themselves particularly to concerts and the spoken word.
The chapel is open to visitors from Monday to Friday from 2pm to 6pm (Wednesday until 8pm) and on Sunday from 12.30pm to 2.30pm.
Mass is on Sunday at 11.30am.
For further information regarding religious celebrations and to contact the chaplain to the Irish Catholic community in Paris, please visit the website of the Irish chaplaincy.
The Old Library, located in a vaulted room above the Chapel, allies sobriety and elegance. It was the working library of the community of lay students and seminarians.
A treasure from the manuscripts collection of Ireland, the Great Book of Lecan, written between 1390 and 1418, was brought to the College for safe-keeping; it remained there for most of the 18th century before being returned safely to the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin in 1787.
The original library collection of the Collège des Irlandais was entirely lost during the Revolution. Its current collection of nearly 8,000 items, of which almost half date from the 15th to the 18th centuries, largely consists of books and manuscripts from suppressed religious establishments, inherited or bought in literary depots after the Revolution, and works of Irish interest acquired in the 19th century. The treasures of the collection are its three exquisite illuminated manuscripts.
The Old Library can be visited by appointment or as part of a scheduled guided visit. For further details, consult the Old Library page.
The former refectory and other spaces of the Collège des Irlandais underwent major renovation in 2002 so that our present day Exhibition and Lecture rooms fit the requirements of presenting international exhibitions, theatre, concerts and debates.
In 1802, Napoleon issued an edict whereby the College des Irlandais was amalgamated with the English and Scots seminaries thus acquiring items such as the 17th century painting of the martyrdom of the English saint Edmund that now hangs in the Lecture Room.
The large and welcoming proportions of the courtyard are perfect for open-air cultural events organised in the summer months. These include Fête de la Musique and other concerts, poetry readings, dance and theatre evenings. Two studios for the artists in residence are also located in the courtyard.
The names of the 30 Irish dioceses of the 18th century figure around the edge of the gallery.
A number of plaques commemorate different moments when the Collège de Irlandais became a refuge for those in need: the building was converted into a hospital to accommodate three hundred French soldiers during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71; it served the United States army in 1945 as a shelter for displaced persons claiming American citizenship; the Polish seminary in Paris established itself in the Collège in 1945 and remained there until 1997, one of its most illustrious students being the future Pope John-Paul II.
Father John Lee of Waterford is credited with the founding of the first collegiate community abroad in 1578 when six students under his tutelage entered the Collège de Montaigu in the University of Paris
This winged sculpture was commissioned by the Columban Fathers, the Fondation Irlandaise and the Bishops’ Conference to celebrate the legacy of the 7th century Irish saint St. Columbanus.
Carved out of Portugese limestone and installed in the courtyard of the CCI in 2007, Imogen Stuart’s sculpture represents the wings of two birds touching, symbolising peace and unity. The Flame of Human Dignity celebrates Europe as conceived by the European visionary St. Columbanus, the Irishman who arguably had the greatest impact on European history.
