The earliest reference to the Jews in Ireland was in the year 1079. The Annals of Inisfallen record "Five Jews came from over sea with gifts to Tairdelbach [king of Munster], and they were sent back again over sea." They were probably merchants from Normandy - http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100004/.

No further reference is found until nearly a century later, in the reign of Henry II of England. That monarch, fearful lest an independent kingdom should be established in Ireland, prohibited a proposed expedition there. Strongbow, however, went in defiance of the king's orders; and, as a result, his estates were confiscated. In his venture Strongbow seems to have been assisted financially by a Jew; for under the date of 1170 the following record occurs: "Josce Jew of Gloucester owes 100 shillings for an amerciament for the moneys which he lent to those who against the king's prohibition went over to Ireland." (Jacobs, "Jews of Angevin England," p. 51).

Jewish names appear in the "Calendar of Documents Relating to Ireland," between 1171, when Joseph the Doctor is referred to, down to 1179. It is unlikely, however, that Jews settled in the island in appreciable numbers at that period; for no further record is found concerning them until several years later. An entry dated 1225 shows that Roger Bacon had borrowed considerable sums from English Jews in connection with his mission on the king's service in Ireland.

By 1232, however, there was probably a Jewish community in Ireland, as a grant of July 28, 1232 by King Henry III to Peter de Rivall, gives him the office of treasurer and chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, the king's ports and coast, and also "the custody of the King's Judaism in Ireland." 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."

The Jews of this period probably resided in or near Dublin. In the Dublin White Book of 1241 there is a grant of land containing various prohibitions against its sale or disposition by the grantee. Part of the prohibition reads "vel in Judaismo ponere". The last mention of Jews in the "Calendar of Documents Relating to Ireland" appears about 1286. When the expulsion from England took place (1290), the Irish Jews had doubtless to go as well. A permanent settlement of Jews was established, however, in the late 15th century. Following their expulsion from Portugal in 1496, some Jews settled on Ireland's south coast. One of them, William Annyas, was elected as Mayor of Youghal, County Cork, in 1555.

The Dublin congregation prospered, and seems to have been in existence in the reigns of King William III. and Queen Anne. In a work published in the latter's reign mention is made of a visit to London by a Rabbi Aaron Sophair of Dublin. No record, however, is found of any Jewish settlement outside of Dublin. As late as 1737 Cork seems to have had no Jewish community, though toward the middle of the century mention is made of Jews residing there.

In 1728, or thereabout, Michael Phillips presented the Dublin Jews with a piece of freehold ground at Ballybough Bridge for a cemetery; and about the middle of the eighteenth century the Bevis Marks Congregation of London assisted them financially in erecting a wall round the burial-ground. It should be mentioned that the Dublin