Yes, they're here - the French have landed

When Lise Cahill first arrived in Ireland at the end of the 1970s she was one of only a few hundred French people living here. At first, of course, this did not matter so much since she had come to learn English.

But, when she met, fell in love with and eventually married an Irishman, she found herself in a different situation, with a new Irish life and connections, but somewhat cut off from everything she had known before.

It was primarily for people in Lise's situation that the Franco-Irish Association was formed in Dublin back in the late 1960s. It has grown over the years as the numbers of French people living here have grown and is now an extremely active organisation which runs two to three functions a month, affording its mixed French and Irish membership the chance to get to know more about France, more about Ireland, and, of course, more about each other.

Twenty years ago, when there were only a handful of people involved, the organisation's main purpose was to combat a certain sense of social isolation - most of the active members were, and still are, French women married to Irish men. Now Ireland has changed, the size and nature of the French community here has changed and isolation, is, on the whole, much less of a problem.

Many of the younger French people living here have not approached the organisation. "It seems they don't need us so much any more," says Lise.

A strong prop of the established French community here is the French-Irish School in Foxrock in Dublin. Established some 30 years ago, it has grown with the community and now has 210 pupils of varying nationalities and 32 teachers, full- and part-time.

It is run under the direction of the French government and ministry of education and offers exactly the same syllabus as in French state schools, leading to the baccalaureat, plus additional teaching in English and optional Irish and religion classes.

There is also an extensive programme of exchanges between Irish and French schools, 75 per cent of them with schools in Brittany. Teachers or principals willing to find a French partner school should consult the website http://www.ambafrance.ie/ culture.htm

From the few hundred of 30 years ago, the French population here has expanded, in particular over the past four or five years, to a figure the embassy now estimates at 10,000. It has also become much more differentiated. The vast bulk of the new arrivals are working in new technology sectors of the economy, often on short-term contracts. In terms of age profile and social and cultural outlook, they form a group quite distinct from the established expatriate community.

Marie, from the Medoc region, came here first as an au pair and worked first in one family where she was shamefully exploited and then in another where she was very happy. She is now in a steady relationship with an Irish man and in her second job in a call centre.

She earns £14,000 a year, £3,000 up on her previous position, but finds the work regime harsh. Though calls often come only once an hour, reading a paper is punishable by a formal warning, as is indeed spilling a cup of coffee on the floor. A colleague was sacked for getting a call from her father on a customer line.

Nevertheless, Marie loves Ireland and wants to stay. She likes Irish people and Irish social life and is impatient with those of her French colleagues who sometimes complain about the country.

Jean, a teacher originally from Paris, came here a year ago after a long spell working in Germany. He finds Ireland extremely welcoming, but has not yet got quite used to the idea that an Irish "I'll phone you tomorrow" may not mean exactly what it says. He also finds Dublin driving scarifying and the city disgracefully dirty.

Arnaud from Anjou, works in the accounts department of a multinational in Dublin and is having a whale of a time here, though this has very little to do with work. In fact, it is the very absence of a pronounced work ethic - something he feels regrettably must soon change - which principally attracts him to Ireland.

Though he sees himself as eventually returning to France - "It is where I am at home" - that can wait a little. Life, Arnaud feels, is to be lived not worked, a view that obviously finds an echo in the young and rather hedonistic city that Dublin has become.