Next week marks a particularly grotesque anniversary. On August 24th, 1572, Huguenots in France were massacred in an orchestrated reign of terror, kicking off a process that would lead to the mass migration of French Calvinists to Ireland.

The other day, tucked away up a side street in Aix-en-Provence, I spotted a tiny Huguenot temple. Beside the enormous theatrical cathedrals, abbeys and monasteries that adorn this beautiful part of France, the easy-to-miss temple is an example of pared-back public humility.

Discretion was essential for the Huguenots, as these French Calvinists were regarded by the monarchy as the enemy within: a Protestant fifth column ready to stage a coup on behalf of France’s fundamentalist Protestant foes – England, the Netherlands and Prussia. Although initially tolerated by the king, the Huguenots were harassed, murdered and expelled from France in various stages throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. They sought refuge across the world, wherever Protestants held power. Today’s English word “refugee” originates from the French word used to describe the exiled Huguenots.

The sectarian conflict that engulfed France in those centuries became one of Europe’s most consequential struggles, playing out first in markets and universities and then on battlefields all over the Continent.. Wherever there was a religious showdown, the Huguenots were prominent on the Protestant side. In the 1690 Battle of the Boyne, mercenary Huguenot forces, loyal to and paid for by William of Orange, were rewarded by being given large tracts of Catholic land around Portarlington, Co Laois, where French continued to be spoken in churches until the 19th century.

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In Waterford, the famous “blaa” was brought to the city by Huguenot refugees. It........

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