Well, we are off again, this time to Ireland and Iceland. Someone commented that we seem to be touring in alphabetical order; we were just in Italy, now Ireland and Iceland, and then in October we are off to Israel. Truth be told, we have no interest in visiting Iran and Iraq, so I guess that theory goes out the window! Maybe India some day?
We leave this Thursday for Dublin, arriving Friday morning and will spend Shabbat in the Dublin community; on Sunday, we leave for a six day driving tour from Dublin, in a big semi-circle beginning southward and finally reaching Galway early Friday morning and then a quick two hour drive due east back to Dublin for the second Shabbat. On the following Sunday morning, we fly to Reykjavic, Iceland and will stay there until Friday morning when we fly back to Dublin for our third Shabbat and then drive up into Northern Ireland and its capital Belfast for a few days before returning to Canada, exactly three weeks after leaving.
A few interesting facts to set the stage for Ireland.
Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic just west of Great Britain. It is divided into Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom with the British pound as its currency) and the Republic of Ireland (sometimes referred to as Eire, but normally just called Ireland, independent and with the Euro as its currency). Its area is about the size of New Brunswick and about three times the size of Israel, so it is really not a very big place. Northern Ireland occupies 1/6th of the island and has a population of 1.8 million and Ireland 5/6th of the area with a population of 4.6 million.
The capital of Ireland is Dublin and the capital of Northern Ireland is Belfast and these two cities are also the largest in the country; about one third of all of the island's population live in Dublin or Belfast.
The main religion in the country is Christianity and while close to 90% of Ireland is Roman Catholic, many would be surprised to learn that the split between Roman Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland is about even.
More about religion in Ireland below when I will share some data on Judaism on the Emerald Isle.
The national symbols of Ireland are the shamrock, the Celtic Cross and the harp.
In the Republic of Ireland, Irish Gaelic is recognized as the first official language, with English, more commonly used as the other official language. While 30% of the population are able to speak Irish Gaelic, only 5% use it regularly. Gaelic is the language that I associate with very long and difficult to pronounce words or names. The longest place name in Ireland is Muckanaghederdauhaulia.
Many Irish family names begin with "Mac" or "O" which mean "son of" and "grandson of" respectively.
Ireland is known for its beer, and Guiness is the most popular brand.
It is also known for its wonderful Celtic music and a popular pastime is to gather in a local pub in the evening to hear the unique sounds of Irish music.
American hi-tech companies have been investing massively in Ireland. 25% of Europe's computers are now made in Ireland. Ireland is the world's largest exporter of software. The European headquarters of Google, Microsoft, Apple, IBM, and Intel are all located in Ireland.
It is estimated that over 80 million people of Irish descent live outside Ireland, in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa and states of the Caribbean and continental Europe. This is 14 times more than the population of Ireland (including Northern Ireland) itself ! 3 million of these emigrants still hold Irish nationality.
Over 34 million Americans are reportedly of Irish ancestry, which makes it the second largest ethnic group after the German Americans. The highest concentration of Irish Americans is in the North-East (New York and New England).
About half of the population of Australia can claim Irish ancestry.
The earliest reference to the Jews in Ireland was in the year 1079. The Annals of Inisfallen record “Five Jews (likely merchants from Normandy) came from over sea with gifts to Tairdelbach [king of Munster], and they were sent back again over sea.”
By 1232, however, there was probably a Jewish community in Ireland, as a grant of July 28, 1232 by King Henry III named Peter de Rivall, “the custody of the King’s Judaism in Ireland.”
The Jews of this period probably resided in or near Dublin. However, when the expulsion from England took place (1290), the Irish Jews had to go as well. A permanent settlement of Jews was established, however, in the late 15th century. Following their expulsion from Portugal in 1496, some Jews settled on Ireland’s south coast. One of them, William Annyas, was elected as Mayor of Youghal, County Cork, in 1555.
The Dublin congregation prospered and grew and at one time proposed to affiliate itself with the Spanish and Portuguese congregation of London. Dublin in 1745 contained about forty Jewish families, comprising about 200 persons.
In the wake of the Russian pogroms in the 1800s, there was increased immigration, mostly from Eastern Europe (in particular Lithuania) and because many of those immigrants disembarked at the port city of Cork (some mistakenly thinking they had arrived in New York), a Jewish community was established in Cork. By the year 1901 there were an estimated 3,771 Jews in Ireland, over half of them (2,200) residing in Dublin, and by 1904 the total Jewish population had reached an estimated 4,800.
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.
Today, there are about 1000 Jews in Dublin, and less than 100 in Belfast, with the remainder scattered in smaller cities on the island. Dublin with three shuls has the largest synagogue, the Orthodox Dublin Hebrew Congregation, and there is a much smaller Orthodox shul called Machzikei Hadas and a Liberal Congregation. Belfast has a shul with occasional services.
We will be attending both of the Orthodox shuls in Dublin on the three shabbatot when we will be there, and we hope to visit the one shul in Belfast as well. There is a Jewish Museum in Dublin highlighting the long history of Irish Jewry.
As far as kashrut is concerned, there is a supermarket that stocks a full complement of kosher foods (we will report on that when we visit it tomorrow) and there is a bakery where all the breads are under the supervision of the local rabbinate. There is also a rather extensive list of products, developed by the local rabbinate with assistance from the British Kashruth authorities, that you can buy off the shelf in any supermarket in the country. And so, we do not anticipate any issues while we are travelling.
What is quite remarkable is that three of the Chief Rabbis of the United Kingdom, Rabbi Isaac Herzog (pictured below, who later became the Chief Rabbi of Israel), Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits and current Chief Rabbi Efraim Mirvis, were all former Chief Rabbis of Ireland. Almost as though Ireland was the training ground for the big leagues.
We will be arriving on Friday morning and our first items of business will be to rent our car (oh yes, they drive on the other side of the road), get our Sim Card, head over to Super Valu to shop for essential supplies that we will need for our six day ride around the country beginning on Sunday, and checking into the apartment we have rented.
Candle lighting, mincha and Kabbalat Shabbat will be around 8 PM, after which we are invited to acting Chief Rabbi and Rebbitzin Zalman and Rifkie Lent's home for our Friday night meal. More on the incredible Hachnasat Orchim of this small Jewish community later.
That's our intro....we will post more after Shabbat...we wish you all a wonderful, peaceful and joyous Shabbat.
Fran and David...on our way over the Atlantic.
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