REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE LAUNCH OF “JEWS IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY IRELAND”
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE LAUNCH OF “JEWS IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY IRELAND” BY PROFESSOR DERMOT KEOGH ON TUESDAY 2
Dermot Keogh’s book comes at a particularly relevant time in Ireland – when almost daily we hear of large numbers of people landing in Ireland and seeking asylum – having made their way across Europe – attracted, no doubt, by reports of economic success and prosperity – and a desire to get to a place which might give them new hope and opportunity. They come from broken homelands, from unimaginable hurt to a country which above all countries, knows what it is to leave a fragmented homeland in desperation and in hope.
In my own family, vague legend had it that there were Spanish Sephardic Jews who converted to Christianity – but beyond that, no more was known. Lately I discovered that a group of Sephardic Jews came to Ireland with William of Orange. Maybe that explains the vagueness of family folklore!
The Jews who at various times in history sought refuge in Ireland, are the basis of Dermot’s book which – as he himself says – is “not a history of the Jewish community in Ireland . . . . rather, an examination of the relationship between the Jewish community and the two Irish states with emphasis on the situation in the South”. Of course, to explore that relationship you have to set it in its historical context – and this the book does comprehensively and thoroughly.
By far the most significant episode in Jewish history on a world-wide scale, has to be the terrible Holocaust - that was to see ‘civilisation’ plumb new depths of inhumanity and cruelty - as the fascist model of racial purity led to ethnic cleansing on a truly horrible scale. While recent events in the former Yugoslavia have echoes of that period – the scale of what befell the Jews of Europe has left an indelible mark on their history – on our history – and on world history, and the story of civilisation. The book examines how Ireland – in its neutrality – ‘contributed’ to the relief of suffering – an Ireland as the then Taoiseach, John Bruton, put it honestly in 1995, where we “have not been immune from the bigotry and the indifference which manifested themselves in Europe this century” and where our doors “were not freely open to those families and individuals fleeing from persecution and death”. Dermot has comprehensively researched the attitudes of Church, State and the media to Jewish refugees – and details how ‘official’ thinking was translated into a policy.
The book also examines the role of the Jewish community in national and commercial life – a community which, as the late Chaim Herzog puts it in the foreword, “produced a fighter for Irish freedom . . . Lord Mayors of three principal cities . . . representatives in the Dáil representing the three major parties in Ireland, one of whom achieved a ministerial appointment” - and, of course, in the person of Chaim Herzog himself – which he omitted to mention – a President of Israel! The contribution which the Jewish community has made to Irish life has been far out of proportion to its size – and the launch of the book gives us cause and opportunity to express our gratitude to those who made Ireland their home place – and despite the ugly episodes of anti-Semitic activity and attitude – made such a significant and lasting contribution to building the Ireland we have today. Having suffered much because of their faith, they worked profoundly, and used well both the gifts and the times God gave them. It gives us a welcome opportunity to tell them what pride we take in their achievements, a profound pride that so few have given so much.
Yet, as Dermot documents so well in his book – many came here only to suffer again from hate and bigotry. They did so in silence – bearing their burden heroically and with dignity – as they have done in so many other places – on too many different occasions in the last two millennia. In that respect, the book serves to document the plight of those who suffered in our country – and of the prevailing thinking in which that suffering took place, and which helped hatred to fester. It will serve to remind us of how easy it is to turn on ‘others’ - and to exclude those who don’t quite fit in with our concepts of ‘normality’. It is salutary to remember how wounded many were in heart and mind – they came here in need of help and healing. Mercifully, some did find both and made happy lives here – as Helen Lewis’s book testifies. For others the suffering went on in different ways.
As I have said already, the book is a tribute to the Jewish community in Ireland – and an account of their plight, and of contribution to life in this country. It reminds me of the words of my predecessor, Mary Robinson, when she visited Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1994 – when she referred to its significance to our own Jewish community in Ireland – and where she said it was important to not only remember, but to feel chastened “because this is not something that we can say comfortably, it is of the past, it is over”.
In launching Dermot’s book – I know that the events and relationships detailed in its chapters, are largely part of history – some of it only recent history. In the context of Ireland today – and indeed in the world today – it is a sobering reminder that the tendency to exclude and isolate ‘others’ is still with us – and that there is much to be learned from examining the treatment of the Jewish community in Ireland and their response to their new homeland. They and their children built lives in Ireland of such integrity that they are a witness to what a small community can contribute to a small country. They have been a leaven as they grew to love this country and make it theirs. This book should be compulsory reading for all those who have forgotten the many hundreds of thousands of Irish refugees who had to overcome ignorance and prejudice to create the space in which they blossomed across the globe. Our small Irish community have shown with extraordinary clarity what richness, what treasure we are given when we embrace the 'other' openly and let him or her soar as God intended.
ENDS