Not long out of prison, Oscar Wilde was having difficulty re-establishing himself in literary circles and found the cost of living in Paris very high. Photograph: Getty
When it comes to a concrete example of the close links between France and Ireland, the Centre Culturel Irlandais (formerly the Collège des Irlandais), situated on the Rue des Irlandais, is as good as one will find.
I visited that institution on a recent visit to Paris and was delighted to learn that there was an exhibition on in the library at the time entitled Amitiés littéraires: florilège de la Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet.
Because of my particular interest in the Franco-Irish nexus, this immediately caught my attention. I was shown around by the enthusiastic Carole Jacquet, the person in charge of the library’s Development and Heritage section
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