Here Lies the Remains of an Unknown Jewish Soul

The new Ireland likes to see itself as inclusive and diverse towards migrants, which now make up a staggering 20% of our population. These people come from all nations and ethnicities. In the past, Ireland took in Russian Jews who fled murder and pogroms initiated by the Cossacks.

The Limerick Pogrom (or Boycott) caused many Jews to leave that south-western city. That was instigated by an influential Redemptorist priest, Fr. John Creagh, who called for a boycott during a sermon in January 1904.

Fr. John Creagh, Redemptorist priest That boycott lasted two years and showed the true colours of our sectarian attitudes. This boycott compelled most Jews to leave the city, sending the community into terminal demographic decline.

https://www.theirishstory.com/2020/07/05/revisiting-the-limerick-pogrom-of-1904/

Later, in the embryonic days of the Irish Republic, from the 1920s onwards, we used to proudly trump our fraternal connections with Israel. Much referred to in Ireland’s previous narrative were the links to Chaim Herzog’s. Herzog was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland (UK) and raised primarily in Dublin (Republic of Ireland). Chaim was son of Ireland’s Chief Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog.

https://www.dib.ie/biography/herzog-chaim-vivian-a3969

Overt anti-Semitism was never especially prevalent in Ireland, but the government in the 1920s and 1930s feared an influx of Jews. The Irish envoy to Berlin during WW2, virulently anti-Semitic Charles Bewley,  reportedly objected to Jewish people being given safe haven here as the Nazis escalated the persecution of them. The Irish state claimed to be officially neutral during WW2 – but there was an embedded official indifference from the political establishment to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

There was also much “popular” anti-Jewish sentiment. In July 1943 Oliver J. Flanagan, a newly elected politician (for Laois–Offaly) declared before the Dáil (government): ‘There is one thing that Germany did, and that was to rout the Jews out of their country. Until we rout the Jews out of this country it does not matter a hair’s breadth what orders you make. Where the bees are there is the honey, and where the Jews are there is the money.’

This venomous declaration was made when the Jewish population of Europe was facing the full wrath of Nazi genocide. It was characteristic of an anti-establishment ideologue in the local politics of Emergency Ireland.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/27198574?seq=1

To slightly mitigate that negative narrative, there were a few brave Irish people, like Hubert Butler, who helped save circa 100 Jewish people in Vienna. Also TJ Kiernan, the ambassador to the Vatican, Cork woman Mary Elmes, etc., saved some hundreds of Jews during WW2.

https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/liberators-and-victims-ireland-and-the-holocaust/38871542.html

I’m sorry to say that there is a growing antisemitic trend in Ireland, amplified by left wing politicians, enflamed by their pro-Palestinian supporters and often demonised by the “liberal” biased media landscape. These pugnacious politicians have also called for the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador and promoted anti-Israel BDS initiatives,

In 2023, Ireland gave eighteen million euro of taxpayers money to UNWRA. (Is that liberal largesse to get audited, I wonder?) Does the Irish government know or even care about the antisemitic and anti-Israel content of the UNWRA “educational” materials? What does the Irish government have to say about the shocking discovery of some UNWRA employees being participants of the barbaric October 7th murderous massacres?

All the above pessimism is in contrast to earlier days positives – like the Irish Jewish Family History Database – a 16-volume compendium, by Stuart Rosenblatt, available in the National Archives and in four other locations https://irishjewishroots.com/

Ballybough Cemetery gate lodge (note building date: 5618 – above the door)

Screenshot / Creative Commons permissions apply

In more contemporary times there have been a few pluses where Irish Jews were elected as politicians: Alan Shatter (the well-known onetime Minister of Justice, who needs no introduction), Ben Briscoe and Mervyn Taylor. Taylor served two periods as Minister of Equality & Law Reform

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mervyn_Taylor

And we mustn’t also forget the kind-minded gestures from people like the socialist mayor of Limerick, Jim Kemmy. He pushed for renovation of an obscure Jewish cemetery that has only eleven graves. Perhaps his political passion for the underdog was an empathetic expiation for the Limerick Pogrom of 1904? That distinctive Jewish graveyard is now preserved in excellent condition.

https://www.iajgscemetery.org/british-isles/ireland/limerick-county-limerick

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List of well-known Irish Jews

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Irish_Jews