Not many Irish ambassadors have inspired statesmen to write 340-page essays on the destiny of nations. On the opening page of his new book, Reflections on the Destiny of a People, former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing recounts how "three years ago, the very sympathique and distinguished ambassador of the Republic of Ireland in France" invited him to give a lecture at Trinity College Dublin to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the death of Edmund Burke.
The tres sympathique ambassadeur is Patrick O'Connor, who sent Giscard, now 74, Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France along with the invitation. Giscard, President from 1974 to 1981, admits he had never heard of Burke, but was amazed by the Irishman's accurate predictions on the course of the French revolution. He was also impressed by Patricia O'Connor. "To be precise," he writes in the second paragraph, "it is he who is distinguished, and his wife who possesses the Irish charm". One page later, he proclaims: "The ambassador of Ireland . . . he the distinguished one, she with the charm of Irish women . . .
In 1996, the then French ambassador to Dublin, Francois Mouton, encouraged Giscard to go to Trinity, as Ireland was about to hold the EU presidency. "French ministers go to this country too rarely, except for one of them who spends a week there hunting snipe every autumn. And yet Ireland is Francophile. Its economy is developing rapidly. The commemoration of the death of Burke will be a big event in Dublin! It would be very useful for you to show France's presence there!"
Although Giscard's book is extremely critical of what he sees as France's inability to adapt to the modern world, he is indulgent towards himself, quoting his editor: "You are the only statesman living in France. You have a duty to enlighten them." And he is, as ever, admiring of women - not just Patricia O'Connor, but his female compatriots as well. "French women are perfect," he writes on page 262. "I write this without hesitation. They are generous, active, natural. They know how to take care of their children. They don't suffer from the same swollen vanity as the men. They are cheerful, well-groomed, full of charm. I know of no defect in them, other than the difficulty they sometimes have working with one another - a difficulty I experienced in government!"