Mitterand to holiday on Ring of Kerry

August 1991

FRENCH President Francois Mitterand will holiday on the Ring of Kerry this month, the French Embassy confirmed this week. And the spokesperson disclosed that the President had received an invitation from Taoiseach Charles Haughey to visit Innisvickillane.

“He’s on his holidays,” the spokesperson said on Tuesday. “It’s not an official visit. It’s a private visit.”

The spokesperson said she didn’t know the dates of the visit or if President Mitterand had accepted Mr. Haughey’s invitation.

The French president visited the Castlecove area in early August three years ago. He stayed with personal friends, Paul Guimard and his wife who have a holiday home in Bunavalla between Castlecove and Caherdaniel. Monsieur Guimard is a French author.

A helicopter visit to the Taoiseach at his holiday home on the island of Innisvickillane took place during the President’s holiday as did a visit to Derrynane House on August 12.

“It’s not absolutely firmed up yet,” a spokesperson at the Taoiseach’s office responded when asked if President Mitterand would visit Innisvickillane again this August.

Chief Supt. Donal O’Sullivan told The Kerryman on Tuesday that the gardai had heard nothing about the visit. He said in the normal course of events contact would be made two to three weeks in advance of a visit. Kerry Gardai liased with the French police during the 1988 visit.