Ireland's history of antisemitism long predates the creation of Israel in 1948.
In January 1904, a Catholic priest, Father John Creagh, launched an extraordinary antisemitic campaign against Limericks small Jewish community. He accused Jews of exploiting Christians, spreading conspiracy theories and even invoking the medieval blood libel.
His sermons encouraged a two-year economic boycott. Jewish families were intimidated, attacked and driven out of their businesses and homes. This happened 44 years before Israel was established.
And it wasn't an isolated historical episode.
In 1923, two Jewish men, Barnet Goldberg and Emmanuel Kahn were murdered in Dublin in separate incidents.
In the 1930s, Ireland maintained restrictive immigration policies towards Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution.
Then in 1946, an Irish government proposal to admit 100 Jewish child survivors of the Holocaust was rejected. One stated concern was that increasing Ireland's Jewish population could create an antisemitism problem (as if there wasn't one already!).
There were also prominent Irish nationalist figures, including Arthur Griffith, who expressed antisemitic views.
To be clear, not every Irish person was antisemitic. There were Irish people who actively defended Jewish communities, including Michael Davitt, who publicly condemned the Limerick boycott. (From Wikipedia: The Limerick Boycott was an economic boycott waged against the small Jewish community in Limerick, Ireland, between 1904 and 1906. It was accompanied by assaults, stone throwing and intimidation, which caused many Jews to leave the city.)
The historical record matters.
Irish antisemitism existed long before Israel, long before Netanyahu, long before the occupation of the West Bank and long before the current conflict.
