''The Year of the French'' was a television serial, directed by Michael Garvey and based on the novel by Thomas Flanagan, which was first broadcast in 1982. It was a co-production by the Irish broadcaster

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

, the British television company

Channel Four Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service i ...

and the French broadcaster FR3, now

France 3 France 3 () is a French free-to-air public television channel and part of the France Télévisions group, which also includes France 2, France 4, France 5 and France Info. It is made up of a network of regional television services providing ...

. The first episode was shown on RTÉ television on 18 November 1982. In France the programme was known as ''L'année des Français'' and was first broadcast on 23 May 1983. The title refers to the year 1798 when French troops sailed to Ireland to support

Irish rebels Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

against the British forces under

Lord Cornwallis Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, (31 December 1738 – 5 October 1805), styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as the Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army general and official. In the United S ...

. To accompany the series

Paddy Moloney Paddy Moloney ( ga, Pádraig Ó Maoldomhnaigh; 1 August 1938 – 12 October 2021) was an Irish musician, composer, and record producer. He co-founded and led the Irish musical group the Chieftains, playing on all of their 44 albums. He was parti ...

composed and arranged music which was performed by

The Chieftains The Chieftains are a traditional Irish folk band formed in Dublin in 1962, by Paddy Moloney, Seán Potts and Michael Tubridy. Their sound, which is almost entirely instrumental and largely built around uilleann pipes, has become synonymous wi ...

with the

RTÉ Concert Orchestra The RTÉ Concert Orchestra is one of the two full-time professional radio orchestras in Ireland that are part of RTÉ, the national broadcasting station. Since its formation as the Radio Éireann Light Orchestra in 1948, the RTÉ Concert Orchestr ...

, conducted by Proinnsias O'Duinn, and with

Ruairi Somers Rory is a given name of Gaelic origin. It is an anglicisation of the ga, Ruairí/''Ruaidhrí'' and gd, Ruairidh and is common to the Irish, Highland Scots and their diasporas. for the given name "Rory". The meaning of the name is "red king", ...

bagpipes Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, No ...

. The album of this music was released in 1983. Historian Guy Beiner has shown that the filming of the series on location in

Killala Killala () is a village in County Mayo in Ireland, north of Ballina. The railway line from Dublin to Ballina once extended to Killala. To the west of Killala is a Townsplots West (known locally as Enagh Beg), which contains a number of ancient ...

County Mayo County Mayo (; ga, Contae Mhaigh Eo, meaning "Plain of the Taxus baccata, yew trees") is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Conn ...

made an impact on local folklore and regenerated oral traditions of ''Bliain na bhFrancach'' (the Irish language term for The Year of the French, which was commonly used to refer to memories of the French invasion and local rebellion in 1798).Beiner, Guy. "The Decline and Rebirth of 'Folk Memory': Remembering 'The Year of the French' in the Late Twentieth Century", ''Éire - Ireland'', 38, no. 3-4 (2003), 7-32.

Cast

Jean-Claude Drouot Jean Claude Drouot (born 17 December 1938) is a Belgian actor whose career has lasted over a half-century. At the age of twenty-five, he gained widespread fame in the French-speaking world as a result of portraying the title role in the popular ...

: Général Humbert *

Keith Buckley Keith Buckley (born November 19, 1979) is an American singer, best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the now defunct hardcore punk band Every Time I Die and the heavy metal supergroup The Damned Things. He is also a published author. Earl ...

: Samuel Cooper *

François Perrot François Perrot (26 February 1924 – 20 January 2019)Gilles Ségal Gilles Ségal (13 January 1929 – 11 June 2014) was a French actor, mime, and playwright. He performed on stage with Marcel Marceau, and in more than sixty films since 1954. He was born in Fălticeni, Romania. Among his most notable roles is that ...

: La Réveillière * Niall O'Brien: Owen MacCarthy *

Donald Bisset Donald Bisset (30 August 1910 – 10 August 1995), was an English actor. He also wrote stories for children which he mostly illustrated himself. They have been translated into 16 languages. Selected filmography * ''Murder in the Cathedral'' ...

Jeremy Clyde Michael Jeremy Thomas Clyde (born 22 March 1941) is an English actor and musician. During the 1960s, he was one-half of the folk duo Chad & Jeremy (with Chad Stuart), who had little success in the UK, but were an object of interest to American ...

: Malcolm Elliott *

Nuala Holloway Nuala Holloway (formerly known as Nuala Holloway-Casey)
Sunday Independe ...

: Nora *

Anne-Louise Lambert Anne-Louise Lambert (born 21 August 1955) (also credited as Anne Lambert) is an Australian actress whose acting career began with her role in '' Number 96'' in 1973. She is well known and quite popular since her role of Miranda in the Peter We ...

: Ellen Treacy *

Jonathan Ryan Jonathan Ryan is an Irish actor. Ryan has also played Gerry Adams and Proinsias De Rossa on screen. Biography As a pupil at C.B.C. Monkstown in 1963, Jonathan played rhythm guitar and shared vocals in the Rhythm & Blues band ROOTZGROOP, with ...

: Randal McDonnell *

Robert Stephens Sir Robert Graham Stephens (14 July 193112 November 1995) was a leading English actor in the early years of Britain's Royal National Theatre. He was one of the most respected actors of his generation and was at one time regarded as the natur ...

: George Moore *

Jacques Zabor Jacques Zabor (June 28, 1941 – November 22, 2007) was a French actor and comedian. In 1980 he starred in '' Le Voyage en douce'' under director Michel Deville Michel Deville (born 13 April 1931) is a French film director and screenwriter. ...

: Sarrazin * Bryan Murray: Ferdy O'Donnell *

Gareth Forwood Gareth L. John Forwood (14 October 1945 – 16 October 2007) was a British stage, film and television actor. Forwood was born to actors Glynis Johns and Anthony Forwood. He made his screen debut in 1965 and went on to prosper as a character act ...

: Wyndham *

Mick Lally Mick is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Michael. Because of its popularity in Ireland, it is often used in England as a derogatory term for an Irish person or a person of Irish descent. In Australia the meaning broaden ...

Marius Goring Marius Re Goring, (23 May 191230 September 1998) was a British stage and screen actor. He is best remembered for the four films he made with Powell & Pressburger, particularly as Conductor 71 in '' A Matter of Life and Death'' and as Julian Cr ...

: Lord Glenthorne *

Frank Kelly Francis Kelly (28 December 1938 – 28 February 2016) was an Irish actor, singer and writer, whose career covered television, radio, theatre, music, screenwriting and film. He is best remembered for playing Father Jack Hackett in the Channel ...

: Corny O'Dowd

References

External links

* 1798 French campaign in Ireland 1982 British television series debuts 1982 British television series endings Channel 4 original programming English-language Irish films English-language French films French-language films Irish-language films RTÉ original programming Television series set in the 18th century Television series set in Ireland {{Ireland-tv-prog-stub