Former students reject school board's 'regret' about Nazi collaborator 

Feutren taught at the school from 1957 until 1985. 

Before coming to Ireland, Feutren was a member of a nationalist group in France called the Bezen Perrot and collaborated with the Waffen SS during the German occupation of France during the Second World War.

The letters sent to St Conleth’s followed one by author and son of a former Argentinean ambassador to Ireland, Uki Goni, who recalled being “physically bashed” by Feutren at the school.

Other letters include one from a former student who said that Feutren’s class was ruled by a culture of fear that even during those times was not acceptable.

The school's statement, signed by board chairman Vincent Sheridan, said the board understood Feutren left France in 1947 and was granted refugee status by the Irish government. 

He studied for a Masters at University College Galway before teaching in Belfast and subsequently in St Conleth’s.

The statement said:

 “There was no restriction on his entitlement to live in Ireland, become a citizen and take up employment.” 

It said that other members of the Bezen Perot group also “became well established in Irish society”.

However, the statement acknowledged: “Research undertaken in more recent times has uncovered not only the identities of the members of Bezen Perot (pseudonyms were used by the members) but also the involvement of some of their members in atrocities carried out towards the end of the war. 

The school has always been aware that Mr Feutren was an ardent Breton nationalist but was most shocked and concerned to learn of the research that may have implicated him in the possible carrying out of atrocities.

"It was only after the death of Mr Feutren that the school became aware of these allegations.” 

It said that the long passage of time since his years at the school, conduct as outlined by Mr Goni in correspondence to the school “should not be overlooked or forgotten.” 

The statement continued that the board accepts that such conduct “has no place in St Conleth’s College, whether that be in the past, the present or the future”.

It added: “The board has expressed the school’s profound regret for any conduct by Mr Feutren (and any other person employed by the school) which failed to meet the standards of conduct and education which we have espoused since the school’s foundation.” 

Mr Goni said the school had “passed up the opportunity to make a clean break with the past” by opting instead “for a non-apology anchored in 1970 than in 2023".

Another former student, Mark Collins, whose Hungarian grandmother hid from the Nazis in Budapest during the Second World War, said the statement from St Conleth’s does not go far enough.

He said: “Regret is not an apology.” 

He said that while the school board referred to there being no legal restrictions on Feutren’s employment, corporal punishment in schools was outlawed in 1982.

Mr Collins and a number of other former students have been invited to the school to share their experiences of their years in St Conleth’s.

After Feutren’s death in 2009, his ashes were returned to Brittany.

In his will, he had made a bequest of a collection of tapes and papers, along with a cash sum of about £300,000, to the National Library of Wales. It sparked controversy in Wales because of his Nazi connections.

In France, a bequest of €50,000 he made to the University of Brittany to help promote the Breton language was rejected because of his background with the Waffen SS.