Michel Deon, the French writer who has made his home in this country for 20 years, has an exuberant, puckish yet admiring piece about Ireland in the Figaro Magazine for April 30th. An Irishman couldn't have done it. Deon ("de l'Academie francaise") starts off thus: "I agree - long after having denied it - that Ireland enjoys, if that is the word, a bad climate. An advanced citadel of the Atlantic, it is spared no assault." He goes on to tell that as he is writing, the sun is blazing down on a deep green pasture where horses, a cow and lambs graze. "I am aware that in five minutes .. . or even a two-hour interval, this idyllic picture will break up under torrents of water, and winds that would take the horns off a bull", but that then we will be favoured with a rainbow, two rainbows overlapping, maybe, "and all the mystery of the universe will be revealed in full light of day." He makes the point that his visitors, he is pleased to note, not bothered by received ideas, can take in the summers which could only be described as changeable and unpredictable: they don't come to get a tan, they come to suffer a little. Now there's a bold statement. He loves the more remote places and says that only in the Azores can you also find on roadsides fuchsias, rhododendrons and other shrubs and flowers he names. He covers more than weather and scenery - literature, native music - but does say that that the great Irish sport is talk. And a lot more, with great verve and style.
From the front cover to the last of some 15 pages of pictures and text, this must be a great draw for French and other visitors. The quality of the pictures and the printing is remarkable. Then Pierre Joannon informs the readers that "John Ford's Quiet Man has swapped his plough for a computer" and Ghislain de Montalambert also writes of the awakening of the Celtic Tiger: "In 15 years, this country has passed from the rural world to the market economy." "Celtic humour has saved the world" is the heading to another article, and we have famous Irishmen in pictures and brief captions. Not forgetting "Dublin, Capital of Rock".
A lot of addresses of places to stay, travel agents etc., but the large lettering on the front cover, "Marvellous Ireland", set on a rock and seascape picture, should be worth millions to Bord Failte. Y