[3] No further reference is found until the 1169 Norman invasion of Ireland launched by Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (commonly known by his nickname, Strongbow) in defiance of a prohibition by Henry II of England.
Strongbow seems to have been assisted financially by a Jewish moneylender, for under the date of 1170 the following record occurs: "Josce Jew of Gloucester owes 100 shillings for an amerciament for the money which he lent to those who against the king's prohibition went over to Ireland".
[5] This grant contains the additional instruction that "all Jews in Ireland shall be intentive and respondent to Peter as their keeper in all things touching the king".
[10] In December 1714, Irish philosopher John Toland issued a pamphlet entitled Reasons for Naturalizing the Jews in Great Britain and Ireland.
Another was introduced in the following year, agreed to without amendment, and presented to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland William Stanhope, 1st Earl of Harrington to be transmitted to London, though it never received royal assent.
These Irish bills, however, had one crucial result; namely, the formation of the Committee of Diligence, which was organized by British Jews at this time to watch the progress of the measure.
[17] In 1901, Albert L. Altman, a successful Dublin salt merchant, was elected to the Corporation as Usher's Quay ward Town Councilor.
During his time in office he was at the center of some of the most volatile nationalist controversies of the era, including the Post-Parnell split within the Irish Parliamentary Party, his own leadership of a Temperance-labor insurgency within Home Rule circles, and the council's decision to refuse a formal welcome to Edward VII on his first visit to the city as the new king, an event James Joyce made the center of his Dubliners' story "Ivy Day in the Committee Room."
The building was consecrated by Hermann Adler, Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, who declared "Ireland is the only country in the world which cannot be charged with persecuting Jews".
[citation needed] The Jewish population of Ireland reached around 5,500 in the 1940s, but according to the 2016 census had declined to about 2,500 mainly due to assimilation and emigration, though less than 800 are Irish citizens.
A teenager, John Raleigh, was arrested by the police and briefly imprisoned for attacking the Jews' rebbe, but returned home to a welcoming throng.
The Land Leaguer Michael Davitt (author of The True Story of Anti-Semitic Persecutions in Russia), in the Freeman's Journal, attacked those who had participated in the riots and visited homes of Jewish victims in Limerick.
About ten thousand unaccompanied children aged between three and seventeen from Germany and Czechoslovakia were permitted entry into the United Kingdom without visas in 1939.
Jews conducted religious services in the church of San Clemente of the 'Collegium Hiberniae Dominicanae', which had Irish diplomatic protection.
[37] There was some domestic anti-Jewish sentiment during World War II, most notably expressed in a notorious speech to the Dáil in 1943, when newly elected independent TD Oliver J. Flanagan advocated "routing the Jews out of the country".
In February 1939, he protested against the Bishop of Galway who had issued a pastoral letter, along similar lines, accusing Germany of "violence, lying, murder and the condemning of other races and peoples".
This indifference would later be described by Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell as being "antipathetic, hostile and unfeeling".
[40] Dr. Mervyn O'Driscoll of University College Cork reported on the unofficial and official barriers that prevented Jews from finding refuge in Ireland although the barriers have been down ever since: Although overt anti-Semitism was not typical, the southern Irish were indifferent to the Nazi persecution of the Jews and those fleeing the Third Reich....A successful applicant in 1938 was typically wealthy, middle-aged, or elderly, single from Austria, Roman Catholic and desiring to retire in peace to Ireland and not engage in employment.
Only a few Viennese bankers and industrialists met the strict criterion of being Catholic, although possibly of Jewish descent, capable of supporting themselves comfortably without involvement in the economic life of the country.
In 1966, the Dublin Jewish community arranged the planting and dedication of the Éamon de Valera Forest in Israel, near Nazareth, in recognition of his consistent support for Ireland's Jews.
[48] In 2006, Tesco, a British supermarket chain, had to apologize for selling the notorious antisemitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in its stores in Britain and Ireland.
Shaheed Satardien, head of the Muslim Council of Ireland, said this was effectively "polluting the minds of impressionable young Islamic people with hate and anger towards the Jewish community".
Many fine boxers were produced, amongst whom were Sydney Curland, Freddie Rosenfield, Gerry Kostick, Frank and Henry Isaacson, and Zerrick Woolfson.
[71][72][73] The United Irishman also published articles by Oliver St. John Gogarty that contained antisemitic sentiments, which were common in the Ireland of the time.
"[75][76] More recently, Réada Cronin, a Sinn Féin TD from Kildare North, was criticized for a number of antisemitic tweets dating back nearly a decade, which included claims that Jews were "responsible for European wars", that Adolf Hitler was a "pawn of the Rothschilds", and that the Mossad was "influencing" British elections;[77][78] Cronin apologized and received no further disciplinary action from Sinn Féin.
[79] According to The Jewish Chronicle, Chris Andrews, another Sinn Féin TD, appeared to suggest that Hitler may "not have been too far wrong," and liked social posts referring to Israelis as "murderous Zionist bastards;"[80] Mick Wallace, an MEP who affiliates with The Left in the European Parliament, shared publications on social media that suggested Jews control the media, blamed Israel for the September 11 attacks and characterized Jewishness as a "tribal sociopathy".
"[81] Keogh singles out the Denis Fahey, professor of theology in the Holy Ghost Fathers' seminary at Kimmage, Dublin, and the Jesuit priest Edward Cahill, a close friend of de Valera.
[82] On Passion Sunday 1932, John Charles McQuaid, the Primate of Ireland, Archbishop of Dublin, and a major political influence on Irish politics throughout much of the 20th century, delivered an antisemitic sermon to Blackrock College; in it, he denounced Jews on the grounds that[83] From the first persecutions till the present moment, you will find Jews engaged in practically every movement against Our Divine Lord and His Church.
Mrs. Ceina Hurwitz' first cousin Sara Bella Clein, also from that well known Cork family, married William Lewis Woolfson of Dublin, a member of a very prominent and numerous Dublin Jewish business family, whose many descendants are today spread all over the world including Ireland and Israel.
During World War II, a number of Jewish children escaping from the Nazis, via the Kindertransport, reached and were housed in Millisle.