Unfortunately we know little about the Sephardic Jews in Ireland. There were Sephardic Jews in Ireland in the mid-18th century including a de Castro family.
- Jews were admitted to England by Oliver Cromwell in 1656.
- It is reported that there was a Portuguese synagogue on Crane Lane, off Dame Street, in Dublin in the late 1650s and early 1660s.
- Circa 1662 brothers Manuel and Gaspar Pereira were living in Dublin. These may be the first Sephardic Jews in Ireland identified by name.
- In 1672 Bishop John Brennan reported the presence of a few Jews in Ireland to the Pope.
- Around 1718 the Sephardic community moved to the Annadale area off Ellis Avenue (what is now Philipsburg Avenue), Fairview, Dublin. Some of these came from The Netherlands.
- In 1718 Alexander Felix (David Penso), Jacob do Porto and David Machado do Sequeira leased a plot of land for a cemetery.
- It is reported that some London diamond merchants moved to Ireland in the mid 18th century due to war (possibly the War of the Austrian Succession, 1740-1748) which disrupted the East India trade. Possibly shipping to Ireland rather than England was safer from French attack.
- John D’Alton in ‘The History of the County of Dublin’ reports that in 1745 there were around 40 Jewish families comprising 200 people in Dublin.
- In 1745 and 1746, Bills were introduced into the Irish House of Commons proposing to naturalise Jews, but they did not pass.
- Jewish cemetery in Dolphin’s Barn, Dublin, is consecrated in 1748. This is likely the cemetery reported at Ballybough
- In 1749 the London community funded the return to London from Ireland of a destitute Mendoza family, led by the grandmother of the boxer Daniel Mendoza
- Marlborough Street Synagogue reported to have opened in 1762 of 1746 and to have closed in 1790/1791. Not clear if this was Sephardic.
- Sephardic Jews also settle in Cork, drawn by commercial opportunities in the port city. Cork was the last stop for ships travelling from Britain to Americas to take on fresh food and water.
- Possibly all the Sephardic Jews in Ireland left in the second half of the 18th century
Sources for Researching Sephardic Jews in Ireland
- “The Jews of Ireland: From Earliest Times to the Year 1910” by Louis Hyman
- Bevis Marks Archives at the London Archives
- Contemporary newspapers
- 5618 and All That: The Portuguese Cemetery Fairview Strand by Diarmuid G. Hiney
- Archives of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews’ Congregation of London
- Irish Jewish Museum
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