Yann Fouéré- 20th Century Man?
by Rhisiart Talbot for the Celtic League
On 20th October 2011 a man that has become part of Brittany’s recent political history passed away at the age of 102 years of age. In a life that spanned much of the twentieth century, Yann Fouéré was indeed a‘20th Century Man’. But even if Mr Fouéré’s life occupied the last hundred years, it is only in the twenty first century that this man’s political vision will be fully appreciated.
Yann Fouéré’s legacy will be as a man who worked relentlessly as part of a movement that aimed to find a solution to the political and linguistic turmoil that the Breton people find themselves in. With a French State that refuses to recognise or support Breton difference of any kind if it does not involve a French appellation before and after it, Mr Fouéré swam against the tide, but kept swimming. This 20th Century man chose action over complaint in an attempt to ensure that the unique voice of the Breton people could be heard in a French Republic falsely described as “une et indivisible”. Fouéré dared to challenge this myth and paid a heavy price for it. A lifelong campaigner for Breton autonomy, he was a painful thorn in the side of the French authorities.
Despite his political exile in Wales and then Ireland and his sentence to 20 years hard labour by the French authorities in absentia, through to his exoneration in 1955 and his subsequent return to Brittany, Mr Fouéré maintained his political beliefs throughout, because he knew he was right. An active member of the Celtic League since its foundation, he was a dangerous activist for the French with international links. Without evidence Fouéré was arrested in1975 on suspicion of planning a bombing campaign against the construction of proposed nuclear power stations in Brittany and spent 105 days in a Paris jail before the case was dropped.
Mr Fouéré stood out as a Breton political campaigner, because he dared to give voice to the concerns being expressed by the silent majority through the press and the media; his was a voice that could not be silenced and he published relentlessly up until his death this year. But Mr Fouéré was not alone in calling for the recognition of the languages, peoples and territories of those that were being quietly suffocated by the political state in which they often accidently found themselves. The twentieth century saw the rise of political nationalist movements in all the Celtic countries and the Celtic League grew out of this tradition. But Mr Fouéré was also part of a wider European movement of peoples who were demanding equal rights with the political majority. Peoples like the Basque’s, Galician’s, Flemish and South Tyrolean’s were all acutely aware of their difference and did not feel comfortable living within the artificial borders that had grown up around them.
Despite being a part of this wider European and Celtic movement and maintaining his home in Ireland, Fouéré stayed focused on campaigning for the plight of the Bretons. His Herculean efforts in the face of an aggressively resistant French central State should stand as an inspiration to us all. Fouéré may have been a twentieth century man, but like the other founding members of the Celtic League he was a man with a vision ahead of his time. His political aspiration for Brittany, to be free to make its own decisions on equal terms with other nations, has now become the aim of a rapidly growing number of political parties and organisations throughout Europe. Despite Fouéré’s twenty first century political vision, France has frustratingly maintained its nineteenth century attitude towards the political, linguistic and human rights of the Breton people throughout his life time.
The Celtic nations set the pace for political change within Europe for peoples fighting for their right to self-determination. Over the next few years the peoples of Europe will look once again to the Celtic countries as Scotland gets ready to vote in a democratic referendum that could see it become an European nation in its own right once again. The peoples of Europe are waiting to see what the consequences of such a move will be. The UK Government has said that it will respect any decision that the people of Scotland vote for, but we will all have to wait and see. My only regret is that Mr Fouéré will not be around to see the first Celtic nation gaining independence, but I am sure he knew that this was an inevitable political development from the beginning.
As another founding member of the Celtic League, Gwynfor Evans, said:
“A nation is swiftly overcome if its spirit is weak; but with unyielding determination it can vanquish powers that appear to be utterly invincible.”
It is in this tradition that Yann Fouéré worked and while the world catches up, I humbly pay my respects to this great twentieth century man.