The city of Nantes was a focus for Irish Catholic clergy in exile from the mid-seventeenth century onwards. Several bishops either resided there or stayed for short periods after the Cromwellian campaign, and Irish clergy can be found there in records from 1640 onwards, as well as a group of nuns. A twelve-page pamphlet Récit véritable du bannissement du clergé catholique du royaume d’Irlande par les commissaires du Parlement de la République d’Angleterre en 1653 was printed in Nantes some time after the declaration by the parliamentary commissioners banishing clergy from Ireland in January 1652 (old style). Only one copy is known to exist. It is held in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. The document appears not to have been used by historians, although it was listed in the bibliography of George Ascoli’s important study of Franco–British relations, La Grande- Bretagne devant l’opinion française. It is reproduced below in order to make it available to historians and students of the subject.