Sir, – With reference to your Obituary of Yann Fouéré (October 29th), we wish to point out the following: Yann Fouéré devoted his entire life to advocating European integration based on a federal system transcending the nation-states. He believed this was the only way to guarantee the rights of ethnic minorities. All of his works, books, articles and statements reflect his life-long passion for a European integration process incorporating all the “natural communities” of Europe, including Ireland. The suggestion contained in your Obituary, therefore, that he was against Ireland’s accession to the EEC in 1973, is incorrect.
Because many of his views on regional autonomy and federalism were not to the liking of the French establishment at the time, he was the target of repeated harassment. All the charges and political trials which were brought against him and other like-minded Bretons, mentioned in your Obituary, took place under the State Security Court – a court of exception where persons could be detained indefinitely without trial. The existence of this court was condemned by many human rghts organisations such as Amnesty International, and was criticised by the Council of Europe as being contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights, to which France was a signatory. One of the first decisions that President Mitterrand took upon his election in 1980 was to abolish this court, and also open the possibility for French citizens to appeal to the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for human rights violations, a right denied by all previous French governments. In addition, although the charges of alleged wartime collaboration were dismissed by the French courts in 1955, this charge is still used to discredit many leading Breton activists.
Yann Fouéré’s five-month detention without trial in La Santé prison in Paris (1975-76) was accompanied by an extensive campaign for his release which received considerable support in Ireland. Petitions were addressed to the French authorities and expressions of support came from many quarters including sitting TDs at the time, such as the late Sean Moore, as well as Máire Geoghegan-Quinn. These protests enabled Garret FitzGerald, the foreign minister at the time, to raise the matter with the French authorities.
This support for Yann Fouéré also stemmed from the enormous contribution which he had made through the shellfish business he developed in the west of Ireland, supporting the livelihood of many families in the fishing communities all along the west coast from Blacksod in the north to Dingle in the south, throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, at a time of serious economic depression in those areas. – Yours, etc,