Helene Viannay:A French resistance fighter, Hélène Viannay, who died on Christmas Day, aged 89, devoted her life after the second World War to sail training. The movement she founded, Les Glénans, spread to Ireland and introduced more than 40,000 people here to sailing.
Born on July 12th, 1917, as Hélène Mordkovitch in Paris, she was the daughter of Russian emigrants. She was the co-founder of the underground second World War resistance newspaper Défense de la France, which was secretly printed in her Sorbonne laboratory of geology. That newspaper was renamed France Soir after the end of the war.
She married resistance journalist Phillippe Viannay in October 1942. They had two sons: Pierre, born July 14th, 1943, and François, born in 1947, who died tragically in 1970.
After the end of the war, Hélène, her husband and several other left-leaning intellectuals decided to create an activity camp in west Brittany to help disaffected Parisian youths regain a sense of community.
Les Glénans was born, but there was little sign then - other than Hélène's vision - that the club would grow to become the largest sail training organisation in Europe, with an emphasis on team work, learning to sail and, most importantly, learning about life.
When she established the Centre Nautique des Glénans (CNG) in 1947, it was at a time when there was little French commercial traffic around the coast and very few pleasure craft at all. In occupied France, German forces had put an exclusion zone around the French coastline. Getting out on a boat was a novelty and using the sea environment for social rehabilitation was a popular idea that took hold.
Hélène was convinced that showing confidence in people and expecting high standards were the pillars of responsibility. She attached great importance to finding those she could trust and giving them great responsibility. She took risks by entrusting a cruising boat and its crew to a 20-year-old skipper. She was proud of such initiatives, and they worked.
Hélène wrote in 1990: "For us, the seas were empty and free; with our little cruising boats we could venture where we willed, there was always space in the harbour, foreign moorings were deserted, everywhere a friendly welcome. At that time, Brittany was extraordinarily beautiful."
During the 1960s, Glénans in France expanded greatly; new bases were opened, one after the other. The CNG had an ambition to become truly international, and encouraged the opening of bases in Italy (at Arosa and Caprara) and in Spain.
But it wasn't only Glénans that was growing. So was the French economy, and Hélène became disillusioned. The movement which she had launched started to disappear; the coastline was built up, marinas were opened.Increasing regulations, she said, was "souring their dream".
"It was then we started to dream about Ireland. Our imaginations were fired by reports of skippers who since 1961 had been coming back with stories of good and bad weather, sailing conditions which were sometimes difficult, the most beautiful countryside and a warm Irish welcome," she told Ireland Afloat magazine in 1976.
The first Glénans base was set up in Baltimore, west Cork, in 1969, the second in nearby Bere island, in 1971. A west coast base was established on Collanmore Island in Clew Bay, Co Mayo, in 1979. Since 1969 more than 40,000 people have attended Glénans courses in Ireland and 320,000 in France.
For the Viannays, Ireland became a symbol of rediscovered roots and freedom.
In 2001, Hélène was awarded the Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur, France's highest civilian award.
Several hundred people paid homage to her at a ceremony on January 4th at the Cupola of Père Lachaise cemetery, Paris.
Her family, friends and many members of Glénans were present.
Gerry Jones, the Irish Glénans club treasurer and a personal friend of Hélène's, represented the Irish club at the ceremony. In recognition of her strong links with Ireland, a eulogy was read in English.
Her husband, Phillippe, died in 1986. She is survived by her son, Pierre.
Hélène Viannay: born July 12th, 1917; died December 25th, 2006