Robert Briscoe

Robert Briscoe (born September 25, 1894 in Dublin , † May 30, 1969 ) was active as a freedom fighter for the IRA. From 1927 he was the first Jewish parliamentarian in the Irish Free State and later Lord Mayor of Dublin.

Life path

Like many other Jews, the Briscoe family came to Dublin from the Akmijan (now Akmenė ) area in the Kovno district of Lithuania in the 1880s. Robert Briscoe was born at the family home on Lower Beechwood Av. Born in Ranelagh, Dublin. The family moved into their general store Lawlor Briscoe on Lower Ormond Quay when he was five months old, which also made furniture.

He attended elementary school on Kildare Street, then St Andrew's Presbyterian School. In London he attended the Townely Castle Jewish institution for two years . With his brother he started an apprenticeship with Hecht Pfeifer in Berlin in 1912 . When the war broke out in 1914, he returned to Ireland to travel to the United States in December, where he worked until 1917.

Struggle for independence

Soon after his return he became revolutionary, having supported Éamon de Valera in America . Since the winter of 1919/20 he was on Michael Collins's staff .

While John Chartres was director of the Irish "Legation" in Berlin, Briscoe was in Germany procuring weapons for the Irish freedom fighters on behalf of Collins, even during the negotiations that may lead to the establishment of the Irish Free State in 26 counties of Ireland should already be running.

Together with IRA members John T. Ryan , Seán MacBride and Charles McGuinness , he organized arms transports. On the one hand, in the summer of 1921, he bought the steamship Dortmund, manned exclusively by IRA members, which commuted between Hamburg and Ireland. During the Irish Civil War, the ship was confiscated in Cork in August 1922 and then held in Dublin for a long time.

The trawler Anita, commanded by McGuiness, was seized by German authorities on October 6, 1921 in the port of Hamburg. British authorities had learned of the plan and requested that the delivery be stopped and the weapons destroyed in accordance with the provisions of the Versailles Treaty. A minimal fine was imposed on the captain in the process that followed. The officials charged with the destruction were not interested and instead delivered the weapons to the warehouse of the "consul" Briscoe.

The anti-Semitic attacks of the Irish consul Charles Bewley in Berlin's Tauentzien Palace on January 19, 1922 were intended to serve as a pretext to obtain his recall; in fact, it was £ 20,000 for arms which had fallen into the wrong hands through Bewley and which were difficult to get back.

Parliamentarians

Briscoe was a founding member of Fianna Fáil (FF) and was elected for the first time in Dublin's South City constituency in September 1927 - as the only Jewish member of the Irish Parliament . Through his friendship with Éamon de Valera, he was able to exert direct influence on trade policy, but still remained a backbencher. He kept his seat in Dáil Éireann until 1965.

In 1929 he initiated a measure against private moneylenders, which became law in 1933 as the Moneylenders Act , which prevented usury . Otherwise he dealt with trade policy. In 1933 he secured his friend from Bremen, the slaughterhouse owner JW Färsenfeld, the exclusive right to export cattle for that year.

He was a supporter of Zionism . With regard to the so-called final solution of the Jewish question undertaken in Germany , he showed astonishing foresight. As early as September 22, 1939, he indicated that it would be exterminated. In early 1940 he enlisted recruits for the British Army on a trip to South Africa. At the same time he secretly collected funds for the Irgun so that they could promote the (illegal) immigration of Jews to Palestine.

At home he advised Irish Jews to join the Local Defense Force ( LDF); he even suggested setting up a separate Jewish unit. The military intelligence service G2 critically monitored its numerous contacts with foreign Jewish organizations. An American diplomat reported in 1949 that Briscoe had allowed up to 300 Jews to enter Ireland illegally; both Robert and his son Ben vigorously denied this.

In February 1948 he helped to organize the foster home for 100 Jewish orphans (7 to 16 years old) from Prague. He later continued to campaign for displaced persons so that they could be accepted in Ireland. However, he often failed due to the restrictive policies of the Justice Minister.

Lord Mayor of Dublin

Briscoe was also a member of Dublin City Council. As a member he was for the first time from 1956 to 1957, and again from 1961 to 1962 Lord Mayor of Dublin ( Lord Mayor of Dublin ). Briscoe was the city's first Jewish mayor. However, the first Jewish person to be elected to this office was Lewis Wormser Harris . However, he died before his inauguration.

family

His father Abraham William came from the Lithuanian village of Zagar. At the age of 14 he was sent to Dublin, where he peddled brushes. He later met his wife Ida in Leipzig. He had a brother.

Robert was married to Lily, b. Isaacs from Dublin. They had sons Ben and Joe. The latter joined the Landwehr ( Local Defense Force ) and was the longest-serving officer when he left in 1980. Ben took over the parliamentary seat of his father in 1965 and was one of three Jews in the 27th Dáil (1992–1997), like his father for Fianna Fáil. On July 5, 1988, he also became Lord Mayor of Dublin.

Works

• Autobiography: For the Life of Me; Boston 1958
• Archives: His written estate is in the Jabotinsky Center in Israel.

Literature and Sources

• Keogh, Dermot; Jews in Twentieth-Century Ireland; Cork 1998, ISBN 1-85918-149-X ; Pp 73-5, 88-90

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Keogh, Dermot; Jews in Twentieth-Century Ireland; Cork 1998, ISBN 1-85918-149-X ; mainly pp 73-5, 88-90
2. ↑ December 6, 1921
3. ↑ cf. O'Driscoll, M .; Irish Recognition Seeking; European Historical Quarterly Vol. 33, (2003), p. 73.
4. ↑ O'Driscoll, Mervyn; Ireland, Germany and the Nazis; Dublin 2004; P. 24f.
5. ↑ cf. Roth, A .; Gun Running from Germany to Ireland in the early 1920s; in: Irish Sword, Vol. 22 (2000), pp. 209-10.
6. ↑ 5% per week was common. Keogh (1998), pp. 89f.
7. ^ "How often did I tell American Jews ... the problem would be solved by extermination ..." Letter to Ziff, September 22, 1939 in Florida; quoted in Keogh (1998), p. 152.
8. ↑ Keogh (1998), p. 174, 191

Web links

Entry on the side of the Oireachtas