I discovered a cache of 1930s Garnier letters in a 'concertina file' along with other documents which JJ apparently wished to keep safe; it included letters from my mother during their courtship 1909-1914. The first in sequence however is not from Garnier, though it is to do with the Cercle Autour du Monde. With them was a printed listing of A du M Membres d'Honneur (including Lanvevin, Perrin, Paul Valery, Vito Volterra), Membres Titulaires (none of whom I recognise except Ch Garnier), Members Associés (none of whom I recognise) and Membres Correspondants. The list alas is undated. There is no mention of JJ in any capacity, so presumably JJ's association with the Cercle must have been through personal contact with Garnier, whose status is given as President du Bureau. But see the 1938 letter below. The bundle also included the AE paper of Garnier, and the TW Moody letter relating to the Irish Times review of Garnier's book.

December 29 1934

May 17 1935

June 17 1935

This letter is less legible than usual for some reason. The letters up to now of this batch, and the one which follows, are on Autour du Monde headed paper. RJ March 2001.

February 21 1937

October 4 1937

Garnier had retired; there is a mention of one Stewart Christie; he had looked for Boisguilbert for JJ, found it in the St Genevieve but not commercially; he would continue to look for it via his 'bouquiniste habituel'. He had written an article on Henry Harrison's Parnell Vindicated and Ireland and the British Empire (1937); this would adapt to the final chapter of his book on Ireland, for which he needed more insights into Higgins, Griffith and Collins, and he hoped JJ could help him with this. On 'votre President de l'Executif' (ie de Valera, who was apparently un-nameable!) had there been any serious study since Dwane which was superficial? (He was finding difficulty understanding Dev! RJ). Was Maude Gonne MacBride still alive? He promoted the utility of the International Chamber of Commerce, of which the Free State was a member. He aspired to complete his book on Ireland, though the climate for publishing was not good.

Later on October 15 he sent a postcard to the effect that he had found Boisguilbert, 1696 edition, for 120fr, 16/6, which he would purchase if JJ confirmed his order.

Then on October 21 Garnier confirmed having got Boisguilbert, and responded to JJ's invitation to come to Ireland, declining for this time, having a complicated itinerary: Chester, Hull, Rotterdam, Amsterdam (Maison Descartes). But later he was accepting a Scottish invitation for the following February; he would go from Glasgow to Dublin via Belfast. He hoped JJ would have references on O'Higgins.

March 7 1938

Garnier thanked JJ for organising access to various sources for him on Kevin O'Higgins; he had met McCracken, he had met James Horgan in Cork along with WH Porter (this was Billy Porter, the Cork Classics professor, a long-term friend of JJ, and an active Fine Gael supporter RJ). Garnier now understood the essentials of the 'Round Table' collaboration. He mentions having met Miss M Ryan and Professor James Hogan, who was 'bien reduisant'. This was useful in completing his picture of Kevin O'Higgins. He had met Professor Stockley 'dont le communisme m'a l'air a l'eau de rose'; Garnier also met Mr Barry (physiologue), Canon Scannel and Maire MacSweeney.

July 9 1938

Cher Senateur et Ami

Nous sommes en train de réprimer notre liste des membres du Cercle et parmi les membres titulaires a titre étranger, nous avons mis, sur leur demande, MM Randerson, Nicholson et Anesaki. Je viens vous demander si vous voulez bien vous joindre a eux et a nous, ce qui serait pour nous un appui moral et, éventuellement, un appui materiel...

He went on to point out that distant members paid half-subscription, the full rate being 125fr, and he would waive the first year in return for JJ's hospitality when Garnier was in Ireland. The Cercle would be closed during August, but if JJ wanted to come over, the Garnier house in Bourgogne was free. The Horgan daughter, a medical student like Maureen, was staying with them currently.

On July 27 Garnier sent a short letter, enclosing the new members list, showing that the transaction was complete.

Alas the Bourgogne trip never happened; JJ saw the war coming, and early in 1939 we made a family trip to London, as recounted elsewhere.

August 1939

November 15 1939

So Garnier's chronic book on Ireland in the end came out; for some reason it is not to be found among JJ's possessions; perhaps he donated it to the TCD library; this is unfinished business; I would like to see it. RJ March 2001.)

November 24 1939

Dear Johnston / Very many thanks for sending me M Garnier's two letters. He writes most charmingly. I shall be glad to send him any small corrigenda that occur to me, if he has an opportunity of bringing out a revised edition of his book.

His remarks on 'Eire' are interesting and enlightening. I felt sure that the Irish Times review was wrong in calling this a misprint, and shall take care to make the point in my review of the book in Irish Historical Studies

Yours sincerely / TW Moody.

Moody delivered on the promised review, true to form, in Irish Historical Studies Vol 2 no 5, March 1940. The 'misprint' accent on the last e of Éire is intentional, to convey to a French reader an approximation to the pronunciation. The review was as follows:

EIRÉ: HISTOIRE D'IRLANDE, by Charles M.Garnier. pp. 270; Paris, Aubier, 1939. 25fr.

This is something different from previous French works on Ireland, which are either not primarily historical or are limited to a particular period or subject. It is an outline of Irish history from its remote beginnings to 1939, and it is written for the general reader in France.

Up to 1900, the story is compiled from existing histories. But M. Garnier's account of the past 40 years is largely original work, for he has closely followed the course of events and has been.personally acquainted with many who bore a part in them. He has selected and presented his facts with skill and impartiality. The narrative is generally accurate, though there are occasional slips. But the book is not simply a chronicle. The author writes as a friendly foreigner, to whom the achievement of national independence in Ireland is a matter of the greatest satisfaction. He admires England and her culture (he has written two books on Shakespeare and one on Meredith), but does not hesitate to condemn her policy towards Ireland. These views - and, it must be added, a tendency to be sentimental about Ireland - give the key to M. Garnier's approach to his subject.

The style and structure of the. book are all that might be expected from a gifted Frenchman: the style lucid, tense and balanced, the structure well-planned, suggestive and thoroughly adequate to the purpose. The story up to 1800 is disposed of in one half of the book and is a competent introduction to what follows, though it suffers from a lack of that deeper knowledge which M. Garnier possesses for the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He sometimes fails to give due emphasis to essential points and overemphasises others; and he tends to mislead by over-simplification, or straining after a balanced effect. The scale of detail is much more ample after 1800, and the real strength of the book lies here. The eleven chapters on this period are a model of clear and intelligent marshalling of the facts. Unlike the conventional method, he gives separate treatments to the great inter-related movements which dominated Irish politics after 1870 - the struggle for the land and the struggle for home rule. The story of the former is carried up to the. Wyndham land-purchase act of 1903; of the latter to the passing of the Home Rule Bill in 1914 and the sudden snatching of the fruits of victory from the parliamentary party, as the combined result of the Ulster rebellion and the outbreak of the world war.

M Garnier then turns to that new movement, which he calls ' the appeal to spiritual forces' that had gradually been making itself felt ever since the fall of Parnell. He gives a masterly analysis of its component elements, of which he distinguishes five: (i) the renaissance of the Gaelic past, whose greatest expression was, of course, the Gaelic League, founded in 1893; (2) the revival of the arts of ancient Ireland; (3) the new dramatic movement, associated with the Abbey Theatre; (4) the literary revival outside the theatre, in which the greatest figures were AE and Yeats; (5) new economic and social movements, especially the agricultural co-operation scheme of Sir Horace Plunkett. M Garnier thus prepares the way for an account of that new political movement, initiated by Arthur Griffith, which was to reshape Ireland.- Sinn Fein.

M Garnier's presentation of the immensely complicated web of events since 1914 is concise without being superficial; exciting without being partisan. He shows appreciation alike of John Redmond, Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, Kevin O'Higgins, Mr. Cosgrave, Mr. de Valera and Sir Edward Carson. The separatism of the north-east, on which Garnier has much to say, is attributed as much to the industrial development of nineteenth-century Belfast, as to political and religious differences with nationalist Ireland.

TW MOODY

Mai 28 1940

(I remember these turning up, at the Glen, in 1941, salvaged from shipwreck and somewhat damaged. RJ March 2001.)

He expressed appreciation that two of JJ's nephews were helping to defend France, and mentioned that he had recently written two pamphlets and a book, one of the pamphlets being on 'the position of Ireland'. Garnier still sought to explain Ireland to the French, and looked for relevant sources from JJ.

His nephew Daniel Schliegann(?) and some other geologists had discovered an oilfield at St Gaudens.

Postscript