further anti-semitic incidents. The Fianna Fáil government later banned the Blueshirts. In 1977 Goldberg became Lord Mayor of Cork. During his term of office he opened the Trinity Presbyterian Bridge, which in typically Cork fashion was nicknamed "The Passover."

Ireland's behaviour towards Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust was, in the later words of Justice Minister Michael McDowell "antipathetic, hostile and unfeeling". Dr Mervyn O'Driscoll of University College Cork reported on the unofficial and official barriers that prevented Jews from finding refuge in Ireland: "Although overt anti-Semitism was untypical, the 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." It is estimated that Ireland accepted as few as 30 Jewish refugees before and during World War II.

There was some domestic anti-Jewish sentiment during World War II as well, most notably expressed in a notorious speech to the Dáil in 1943, when independent T.D. Oliver J. Flanagan advocated "routing the Jews out of the country". Two Irish Jews, Esther Steinberg and her infant son, are known to have been killed during the Holocaust, which otherwise did not substantially directly affect the Jews actually living in Ireland. Many of Ireland's Jews joined the part-time army reserve during the war. A newspaper report in the Evening Mail said of a visit to a

police station that “I thought that I was in a synagogue!”. The Jewish population of Ireland reached around 5,500 in the late 1940s, but has since declined to around 1,800, mainly through emigration to larger Jewish communities such as those in England and Israel. With the arrival of the Celtic Tiger, and the inward immigration that has brought, the Jewish Communities have also benefited, with new families arriving and settling down. The Jewish School has welcomed the new youngsters, and the newly arrived families find a warm welcome. As the inward immigration continues to rise rapidly, there is a chance once again of Dublin becoming a thriving Jewish city.

Prominent Irish Jews, past and present:

Chaim Herzog — sixth President of Israel  http://www.herzog.org.il/
Yitzchak HaLevi Herzog — first Chief Rabbi of Ireland (and father of Chaim)   http://tinyurl.com/qvr9p
Lord Immanuel Jakobovits — Chief Rabbi of Ireland between 1949 and 1958 and later British Chief Rabbi www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Jakobovits 
Robert Briscoe — member of the Irish Republican Army during the Anglo-Irish War, and twice Lord Mayor of Dublin, in 1956 and 1961  http://tinyurl.com/nwh77
Ben Briscoe — former Fianna Fáil T.D. and Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1988 (and son of Robert)  http://tinyurl.com/p2wrx
Alan Shatter — former Fine Gael T.D. and party spokesperson for justice http://www.alanshatter.com/
Gerald Goldberg — Lord Mayor of Cork in 1977  www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Goldberg
Mervyn Taylor — former Labour Party T.D. and Irish Minister for Equality & Law Reform http://tinyurl.com/pqn57
David Marcus — author, editor, broadcaster and lifelong supporter of Irish-language fiction http://tinyurl.com/px8z3