ABSTRACT
This chapter is a history of the author’s own Irish ancestors and focuses on the family’s connections to, and business relations with, other Irish families in Bordeaux, and their very gradual assimilation in French society. The Clarkes of Bordeaux secured their position in France by first being naturalized French subjects, and eventually having their Irish nobility recognized by the French state. They also moved quickly into international trade and ship outfitting, while using their profits to buy real estate, including townhomes and vineyards. Nevertheless, their Irish identity remained strong and full integration into French society was gradual; the progenitor of the name arrived in Bordeaux from Ireland in 1691, but the first marriage of a Clarke man outside the Bordeaux-Irish community occurred in 1832. The women in the family were only slightly quicker to marry French men. In many ways the Clarke family experience was representative of the Irish families who succeeded in business, most of whom chose not to return to Ireland, but to remain in France and very slowly to become French.
