Bleus de Bretagne

when the counter-revolutionary Whites called the troops of the revolutionary government "the blues" (because of their uniforms).

The organisation arose from the Bretons de Paris, established by Armand Dayot and Ary Renan (son of Ernest Renan). It grew in Brittany from dissatisfaction with the conservative and clerical bias of the existing Breton Regionalist Union, founded a few months earlier. It was centred in the French-speaking east of Brittany and was strongest among the urban middle-class of the larger east-Breton towns. However it estblished branches thoughout Brittany. [Loic Thomas, "Armand Dayot et la ligue des bleus de Bretagne", "Colloque - les Bleus de Bretagne de la revolution a nos jours", Archives departmental de Saint-Brieuc, 1990, pp. 351-62]

It included a number of influential writers, artists and politicians. Notable members were Yves Le Febvre, Jean Boucher, Anatole Le Braz, Pierre-Paul Guieysse and Jean-Bertrand Pégot-Ogier. The organisation worked to emphasise modernity and French identity, in contrast to the emphasis being placed by some Breton nationalists on the traditional Breton peasant Catholic culture and the preservation of the Breton language. The group promoted the commemoration of liberal and revolutionary heroes, organizing the creation of statues of Lazare Hoche in Quiberon and Ernest Renan in Tréguier. [Vytas Gaigalas, "Ernest Renan and his French Catholic Critics", The Christopher Publishing House, 1971, pp.281]

After 1905 its activity shifted to annual congresses, held across the major Breton towns. It also published the journal "Araok: La Bretagne Nouvelle".

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