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‘The Irish and the Jews have a good deal in common’: Irish republicanism, anti-Semitism and the post-war world

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2020

Brian Hanley
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Abstract

This article examines how anti-Semitism influenced republican politics in revolutionary Ireland. It looks at Irish republican attitudes toward Jews, including examples of anti-Semitism. Jews were a visible minority in Ireland and one that was sometimes seen as unionist politically. This article illustrates how conspiracy theories about Jewish influence sometimes featured in Irish nationalist tropes, but were far more common in British and unionist discourses regarding events in Ireland. It also shows how individual Jews took part in revolutionary activities, even as some republicans expressed suspicion about them. Outside Ireland, Irish revolutionaries interacted with Jews in several locations, particularly the United States. There was often cooperation in these settings and both groups expressed solidarity towards one another.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 44 , Issue 165 , May 2020 , pp. 57 - 74
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Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2020

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References

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33 Quoted in Kenny, ‘Arthur Griffith: more Zionist than anti-Semite’.

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75 ‘Inquiry into German accounting’ (U.C.D.A., Ernie O'Malley papers, P17a/4); report to C/S & QMG, 16 Apr. 1925 (U.C.D.A., Maurice Twomey papers, P69/210 (13–19)).

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125 Irish Independent, 14 July 1921.

126 The last days of Dublin Castle: the Mark Sturgis diaries, ed. Michael Hopkinson (Dublin, 1999), p. 35.

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138 Plunkett to de Valera, 2 July 1921 (U.C.D.A., Éamon de Valera papers, P150/1388).

139 I am grateful to Fearghal McGarry, Katrina Goldstone, Robert Gerwarth, Edward Madigan, Patrick Mannion, Patrick Mulroe and Jimmy Yan for their comments and suggestions.