Dr Brigitte Le Juez receives French award

At a ceremony which took place at the French embassy on Aylesbury Road in Dublin on June 20, Dr Brigitte Le Juez (DCU, SALIS) and Dr Loïc Guyon (Head of the French Department of Mary Immaculate College, Limerick) were made “Chevaliers dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques”. They received the honour from the French Ambassador in Ireland, Son Excellence Mme Emmanuelle d’Achon, and from the French Conseiller Culturel, M. Hadrien Laroche, on behalf of the French Minister for Education, M. Vincent Peillon.

Founded by Emperor Napoléon 1st, the Ordre des Palmes Académiques is an Order of Chivalry of France which recognises key academic as well as cultural and educational figures. It honours major contributions to the expansion of French culture throughout the world.

The tributes read to the gathering of academics and friends who had come from all over Ireland, and some from France, highlighted Dr Le Juez and Dr Guyon’s respective achievements, in particular one they share, relating to the Association des Etudes Françaises et Francophones d’Irlande. Dr Le Juez was the founding-president of this association, which was the first in Ireland to focus on literary and cultural questions relating to France and the Francophone world. Dr Guyon is its current president. In only 15 years, the ADEFFI has grown to become an important international organisation with an increasing global membership, which organises yearly conferences, and publishes its own international peer-reviewed journal, The Irish Journal of French Studies. Amongst its very first honorary members, the ADEFFI welcomed the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Dr John Hume, who once studied French at NUI Maynooth and who is also a recipient of the French Legion of Honour. Dr Hume delivered the opening address at the 5th Annual ADEFFI Conference in Queen's University Belfast, in 2003.