Judah in Ireland? Notes by Maeve Twomey edited by Brit-Am.
4 February 2025, 6 Shevat, 5785.
Contents:
1. The Origins of Cork.
2. Jews in Cork.
3. Possible Traces of Jews in Cork Today.
Notes by Maeve Twomey edited by Brit-Am.
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1. The Origins of Cork.
Cork is on the southern coast of Ireland. It is the second largest city in the Ireland. In 2022 it had ca. 224,000 inhabitants. It adjoins one of the largest natural harbors in the world.
Cork was founded in the 500s CE as a monastic colony. The Vikings added to it in ca. 915 and had their own settlement alongside the monastic one. Cork for centuries was to comprise an island of English culture in Gaelic surroundings.
Later Cork was known as a center of Irish nationalism.
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2. Jews in Cork.
In 1555 William Annyas (Anes) became the Mayor of Youghal in County Cork, he was the first person of the Jewish religion to hold such an elected position in Ireland or Britain.
https://www.jewage.org/wiki/he/Article:William_Annyas_-_Biography
William Annyas was the grandson of Gil Anes of Belmonte, Portugal. Many of the first Jewish people to come to Ireland were Marrano merchants from Spain and Portugal. The Marranos were also known as "Conversos." They were the descednants of Jews who had been forced to convert to Catholicism yet continued to remain faithful to Judaism in secret.
The daughter of William Annyas married Yacov Kassin (Shamus Ciosain) son of Yehuda Kassin (Juan Cassin) a Marrano merchant who had moved to Galway in Ireland.
His surname Annyas is sometimes written as Anes and anglicised to Ames, in some case the family may have used the surname Ennis.
There was a three-time Mayor of Youghal (Cork) in 1569 and 1576 and 1581 called Francis Annyas, although the exact relation to William is unclear.
He commanded the English garrison in Youghal during the Desmond (pro-Catholic) Rebellions.
He had a colorful life working as a spy for Sir Francis Drake in the Azores Islands in the Atlantic Ocean to the west of Portugal.
Extracts:
History of the Cork Hebrew Congregation and the Jews of Cork.
http://celebratingcorkpast.com/jews/
Extracts:
There was first wave of Jewish emigration to Cork was in 1772 with the influx of a small community of Sephardic Jews from Portugal.
Relatively little is known about this first community. Although they didn't have a synagogue, a burial ground was discovered at Kemp Street, to the back of the present synagogue on number 10, South Terrace.
The community didn't exceed about 40 in number, and disappeared through intermarriage with local Protestant families.
Written records from 1891 point to the emergence of a second Jewish community in Cork, following the assimilation of the previous Sephardic community.
This community, by contrast, were Ashkenazi, coming (mostly) from a town called Yakmyan in Kovno (former White Russia).
This initial crop of Jews worked mostly as peddlers, selling door-to-door.
They were known, amongst each other, as the vicklemen (vickle means weekly in Yiddish, and their door-to-door rounds took roughly a week).
They would travel around Cork City and its hinterland knocking on doors and selling various things to the local Catholic farming community.
The community reached its peak in the early 20th Century.
Family of the first arrivals soon followed when they found out that Cork, and Ireland in general, was tolerant, even friendly, towards the Jews.
The community first prayed in a small room in Eastville before renting a room in Marlboro Street, and finally building the present synagogue at 10, South Terrace.
At its peak of about 450-500 congregants, the community was very active.
By 1939 the community had reached its peak.
The sons and the grandsons of the peddlers and vicklemen had qualified as professionals in University College Cork and wanted to leave for a place with greater Jewish life and professional opportunities.
There was also emigration to the State of Israel, established in 1948.
The combination of emigration to Israel and the U.S. (among other destinations) resulted in a steady decline in number which persisted from the late 1930s until the 1980s, by which stage only 15 to 20 Jews remained in Cork, Ireland.
At present there are only two families left, as well as a scattering of Jews in the surrounding country
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3. Possible Traces of Jews in Cork Today.
Notes by Maeve Twomey edited by Brit-Am.
# This man looks very much like the Israeli Army official redhead.
# The redheads are different and often good at fighting, climbing trees etc.
# Here are more pictures; the man on the left of the picture below and in the middle are from Cork.
Finds many redheads in Israel that he saw on a visit there and also from various pictures he came across many of whom look like "clones" of Irishmen especially those of Cork in Ireland.
The writer continues, suggest the Jewish or Israelite Presence to the early monastic settlement.
Finds different types in Cork, "some British stock are very bright," "the Irish 12th century stock often have their profound gifts in school"
Local legends and written texts "tracing the Irish to Egypt/biblical lands."
Claims that Jewish Ashkenazi Jew have high rates of schizophrenia similar to those of Irishmen in the Cork region.
Also "the wonderful big noses of Cork had me wondering about our origins."
In the 600s CE there was the Corcu Loigde meaning Family-Clan of the Calf Goddess. They had a kingdom centred in West County Cork who descended from the proto-historical rulers of Munster, the Dairine, of whom they were the central royal sub-tribe or sept.
They hark back tot he Eraine dynasties possibly descentands of Iar or Yair.
Maeve Twomey identifies them as a Jews.