page_title: Irish College in Paris
section_title: Last years
hierarchical_section_title: Irish College in Paris / Last years
caption_attribution_description: Panneau explicatif Photo personnelle (own work) de Marianna
context_page_description: The Irish College in Paris was for three centuries a major Roman Catholic educational establishment for Irish students. It was founded in the late 16th century, and closed down by the French government in the early 20th century. From 1945 to 1997, the Polish seminary in Paris was housed in the building. It is now an Irish cultural centre, the Centre Culturel Irlandais.
context_section_description: From 1873, the administration of the property of the college was with a board created by a decree of the Conseil d'Etat. On that board the Archbishop of Paris was represented by a delegate, and he was also the official medium of communication between the Irish episcopate and the French Government.
  In December 1906, the law of separation of Church and State in France came into operation. In the following January, the French government notified the British Government of its intention to reorganise the Irish Catholic foundations in France so as to bring them into harmony with the recent legislation regarding the Church. It was further stated that the purpose of the Government was to close the Irish college, to sell its immovable property, and to invest the proceeds of the sale, to be applied together with the existing burses for the benefit of Irish students. However, due to the exertions of its superior, Patrick Doyle, and the British ambassador in Paris the college remained open until the outbreak of World War I caused its closure; it resumed in 1919, but closed again on the outbreak of World War II, with students evacuated, leaving Fr. Travers resident for the duration of the war. After the war, it was not reopened as an Irish College, instead, the college was made available for use of a Polish religious community, until in 1989 an Irish presence was re-established. The Polish community having re-located in 1997, the college underwent a complete restoration funded by the Irish government, and in 2002 it opened as the Centre Culturel Irlandais.
caption: The commemorative plaque
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