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Robert Briscoe (politician)

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Robert Briscoe
Teachta Dála
In office
February 1948 – October 1961
ConstituencyDublin South-West
In office
September 1927 – February 1948
ConstituencyDublin South
Lord Mayor of Dublin
In office
1961–1962
Preceded byMaurice E. Dockrell
Succeeded byJames O'Keeffe
In office
1956–1957
Preceded byDenis Larkin
Succeeded byJames Carroll
Personal details
Born(1894-09-25)25 September 1894
Dublin, Ireland
Died29 May 1969(1969-05-29) (aged 74)
Dublin, Ireland
Political party
SpouseLillian Isaacs
Children7, including Ben Briscoe

Robert Emmet Briscoe (25 September 1894 – 29 May 1969)[1] was a veteran of the IRA during the Irish War of Independence and Fianna Fáil politician of Lithuanian Jewish descent. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) in the Oireachtas (Irish parliament) from 1927 to 1965.[2][3][4] Briscoe also served as Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1956 to 1957, and again from 1961 to 1962.

Early life

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Robert Emmet Briscoe was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in the Ranelagh neighborhood of South Dublin. He was named after the Irish Revolutionary, Robert Emmet.[1] His brother Wolfe Tone Briscoe was named after Theobald Wolfe Tone, one of the leaders of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.[2]

Briscoe's father, Abraham William Briscoe,[5][6][7] was the Lithuanian Jewish proprietor of Lawlor Briscoe, a furniture factory on Ormond Quay which made, refurbished, imported, exported and sold furniture all over Ireland and abroad, including to Imperial Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and to the United States. Abraham Briscoe – known universally as Pappa – had arrived in Ireland as a penniless immigrant from the shtetl, and made a living first as a brush salesman and then as a merchant of imported tea.[1] The original family name in Lithuania is believed to have been Cherrick or Chasen.[8]

Abraham Briscoe had married Ida Reddick,[5][6][7] the daughter of a successful Lithuanian Jewish family in Frankfurt am Main. The Reddick family had similarly emigrated from the Russian Empire to escape from the pogroms, religious persecution, and anti-Semitic laws drastically limiting Jews from access to education and to life outside the Pale of Settlement, to live in the far more socially accepting climate of Imperial Germany.[9]

In direct contradiction to "standard anti-Semitic stereotypes of the Jews as avaricious, cheap, clannish, unethical and unpatriotic",[10] Abraham Briscoe felt a very deep sense of gratitude for the better life and freedom from religious persecution that emigrating from Tsarist Lithuania to Ireland had granted him and his family. He accordingly raised his children to be, like himself, enthusiastic Parnellite Irish nationalists and supporters of the Home Rule agenda of the Irish Parliamentary Party.[9]

According to Kevin Kearns' oral history of life in the tenements of Dublin, all money-lenders, regardless of religion or ethnicity, were referred to by Dubliners as "Jewmen".[11] Jewish moneylenders, however, actually had a very good reputation among their customers, in direct contrast to their many Catholic competitors. According to Paddy Mooney, "See, you could come to an agreement with a Jew. Oh yes, our own money-lenders were worse in regards to exploiting the people."[12] Some Jewish moneylenders were very well liked figures in the Dublin slums, known not only for their business integrity, but also for their regular and willing donations to local Catholic parishes and other charitable causes.[13] Even so, Abraham Briscoe intensely disliked fellow Irish Jews who lent out money, and often encouraged the children of their South Dublin synagogue to play pranks on known moneylenders during services for the Sabbath and the High Holy Days.[9]

Personal life

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Robert and his wife Lily[14] had seven children; only two of their sons, Ben and Joe, remained in Dublin. One of Robert Briscoe's daughters Miriam converted to the Catholic faith and became a Carmelite nun.[15] Ben followed his father into politics, while Joe joined the Irish Army aged 15 (claiming to be 18) in 1945; he retired in 1993 with the rank of commandant.[2]

Eamon Martin, former Chief of Staff of Fianna Éireann, was best man at Robert Briscoe's Jewish wedding. They had been close friends during the Irish War of Independence.

War of Independence

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During the outbreak of World War I, Robert Briscoe was on a visit linked to his father's furniture business, to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After briefly being interned as an enemy alien, Briscoe was released and allowed to return to Dublin after swearing an oath that he would not take up arms against the Central Powers.[1]

In what caused years of sharp political arguments with his father, Robert Briscoe rejected his Home Rule nationalist upbringing and instead embraced Irish republicanism. He was active with the Purchases Department, General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Sinn Féin during the Irish War of Independence and once broke his father heart by leaving the family's dinner when the IRA summoned him on the feast of Yom Kippur.

Briscoe also accompanied Éamon de Valera to the United States of America. He regularly spoke for the Sinn Féin cause at public meetings there and was adamant that being a "Hebrew" did not lessen his Irishness. Due to his fluency in the German language from his family's pre-WWI business connections, Briscoe was also sent by Michael Collins to the Weimar Republic in 1919 to be the chief agent for procuring arms for the IRA.[2][16] While in Germany Briscoe purchased arms and had them shipped to Ireland in small parcels. Although the British authorities were constantly searching ships, smaller consignments of weapons were rarely discovered.[17]

In December 1920, Charles McGuinness was made captain of a ship by the name the "Anita" and sent to the Weimar Republic, where Briscoe had already purchased a large number of firearms. However, on the day the crew were due to depart for Ireland, McGuinness was observed by the port authorities paying the crew in large notes, which aroused their suspicions. The German police arrested McGuinness and the rest of the crew. McGuinness was brought to trial, but Briscoe paid for a good lawyer on McGuinness' behalf. Before a sympathetic German court, McGuinness' gun-running against the British Empire was deemed to be a minor offence and he was charged a token fine of 2,000 Deutschmarks.[18] After passing sentence, the German judge wished McGuinness, "better luck next time". The incident caused an uproar back in the United Kingdom.[18]

In 1921 Briscoe purchased a small tug boat named Frieda to be used in smuggling guns and ammunition to Ireland. On 28 October 1921 the Frieda slipped out to sea with Charles McGuinness at the helm and a German crew with a cargo of 300 guns and 20,000 rounds of ammunition.[19] Other sources cite this shipment as "the largest military shipment ever to reach the I.R.A." consisting of 1500 rifles, 2000 pistols and 1.7 million rounds of ammunition.[20] On 2 November 1921 the Frieda successfully landed its cargo near Waterford harbor.

Irish Civil War

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In June 1922 during the Irish Civil War, Briscoe was involved in an incident with fellow anti-treaty IRA members who attacked pro-treaty politician Darrell Figgis at his home. They entered the house and assaulted Darrell Figgis, cutting off his well-prized beard in the process. This traumatised Figgis' wife Millie, who had been under the impression Briscoe and his fellow assistants had been coming to kill Darrell.[21] In November 1924 Millie would commit suicide, expressing in a suicide note that she was suffering from depression as a result of the 1922 attack.[22][23] Darrell Figgis himself committed suicide in 1926.

In his biography, he recalls an incident of being recognised by a pro-Treaty opponent during the Civil War. Briscoe merely turned and walked away, confident that his enemy would not shoot him in the back.[24]

Briscoe addressed political meetings and did fundraising work in the US from December 1922 to 1924.[25] Bricoe later applied to the Irish government for a service pension under the Military Service Pensions Act, 1934 and was awarded 5 and 5/9 years service in 1939 at Grade D for his service with the IRA between 1 April 1920 and 30 September 1923.[26]

Dáil Éireann

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Robert Briscoe (1933)

Elected to the Dáil in the newly independent Ireland, Briscoe worked with Patrick Little to bring through a law limiting the interest that could be charged by moneylenders – and also, as he wrote, "made it illegal for a married woman to borrow money without the knowledge and consent of her husband, for these foolish ones are always the easiest prey of the moneylenders".[27]

Jewish refugees, Irish neutrality, and the foundation of the State of Israel

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During the Second World War, Briscoe, at this time a member of Dáil Éireann, was placed under close surveillance by the Irish Directorate of Military Intelligence and the Garda Siochana Special Branch. His covert activities in support for Zionism and his lobbying on behalf of refugees were also considered potentially damaging to the interests of the Irish State by senior officials from the Department of Justice. Briscoe was also an admirer and friend of Ze'ev Jabotinsky and his campaign of resistance to antisemitism and his efforts to create a Jewish State.[28][29] Between 1939 and 1940, Robert Briscoe worked closely with former British Army Col. John Henry Patterson, the former commanding officer of both the Zion Mule Corps and the Jewish Legion during the First World War.[30] Together, they were involved in covert fund raising for the Irgun in the United States.[31][better source needed] Jabotinsky, while head of Irgun, visited Dublin for secret instruction from Robert Briscoe in the use of guerrilla warfare tactics against the rule of the British Empire over the Mandate of Palestine.[32] During the same period, Briscoe jokingly described himself as the "Chair of Subversive Activity against England".[33] Briscoe also wished for Ireland to give asylum to Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, but did so discreetly in order not to be accused of compromising the neutrality policy of the Fianna Fáil government.[34] Briscoe notably had ugly spats with Irish trade envoy to Germany and avowed anti-Semite Charles Bewley, who tried to thwart his effort of helping Jewish refugees gaining visas for Ireland during the war.

After the Second World War, Briscoe acted as a special advisor to Menachem Begin in the transformation of Irgun from a paramilitary organisation into the Herut political party (later Likud) in the new State of Israel. Briscoe had already been a key figure in the formation of the Fianna Fáil political party out of the Anti-treaty IRA post Irish independence but not before a bitter and fratricidal Civil War. Briscoe accordingly prompted Menachem Begin to make the transition immediately after the Altalena Affair, in order to prevent a similar civil war in Israel.[35]

Later life

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President John F. Kennedy Meets with Lord Mayor of Dublin Robert Briscoe (1962)

He served in Dáil Éireann for 38 years and was elected 12 times in the Dublin South and from 1948, Dublin South-West constituencies – from the 6th Dáil to the 17th Dáil. He retired at the 1965 election, being succeeded by his son, Ben who served for a further 37 years. In 1956, Briscoe became the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Dublin,[36][37] although he was not the first Jewish Mayor in Ireland. That title belongs to William Annyas, who was elected Mayor of Youghal, County Cork in 1555.[38] Briscoe was Dublin's first Jewish Lord Mayor, although Lewis Wormser Harris was elected Lord Mayor in 1876, but died before assuming office.[39] Briscoe served a one-year term and was re-elected in 1961. After learning of a Jewish Lord Mayor from Dublin, Yogi Berra allegedly said, "Only in America!"

Death and legacy

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His memoir, For the Life of Me, was published in 1958. He died 29 May 1969 and, following an Orthodox Jewish funeral, he was buried at Dolphins Barn Jewish Cemetery in Dublin.[1]

In later years, his son Ben Briscoe was very critical of the cult of personality surrounding now disgraced former Fianna Fáil leader Charles Haughey during the 1980s, which Ben Briscoe once compared to a "Fascist Dictatorship". Briscoe accordingly helped lead the discontented anti-Haughey faction within Fianna Fáil, which included Charlie McCreevy, during Haughey's time as Taoiseach.[40] Like his father before him, Ben Briscoe, too, served as Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1988 to 1989 and described winning the election as one of the proudest moments of his entire life.[41]

The Emerald Isle Immigration Center in New York has devoted a special award in his name called the Robert Briscoe award. The group celebrates the close relationship between Jewish and Irish communities in New York and honours Jewish New Yorkers who have helped support immigration in the United States. The 2016 Award Winners were Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and Deborah King, director of SEIU 1199's training and employment funds. Previous winners have included former New York Mayor Ed Koch, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer and U.S. Senator Charles Schumer.

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e White, Lawrence William. "Briscoe, Robert Emmet". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d Benson, Asher (2007). Jewish Dublin. www.aafarmar.ie. p. 24. ISBN 978-1-906353-00-1.
  3. ^ "Robert Briscoe". Oireachtas Members Database. Retrieved 9 March 2008.
  4. ^ "Remembering Robert Briscoe in a standout year". Irish Echo. 22 January 2016.
  5. ^ a b Current Biography Yearbook, Maxine Block, Anna Herthe Rothe, H.W. Wilson Company, Marjorie Dent Candee, Charles Moritz, Published by H. W. Wilson Co., 1997 [1]
  6. ^ a b Jews in Twentieth-century Ireland: Refugees, Anti-semitism and the Holocaust, Dermot Keogh, Published by Cork University Press, 1998, ISBN 1-85918-150-3, ISBN 978-1-85918-150-8 [2]
  7. ^ a b "Robert Briscoe". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 9 March 2008.
  8. ^ "JewishGen - The Home of Jewish Genealogy". www.jewishgen.org.
  9. ^ a b c For the Life of Me by Robert Briscoe
  10. ^ Rodney Stark (2016), Bearing False Witness: Debunking Centuries of Anti-Catholic History, Templeton Press. p. 9.
  11. ^ Kevin C. Kearns (1994), Dublin Tenement Life, Penguin Books. Pages 31-32.
  12. ^ Kevin C. Kearns (1994), Dublin Tenement Life, Penguin Books. Page 100.
  13. ^ Kevin C. Kearns (1994), Dublin Tenement Life, Penguin Books. Pages 146-149.
  14. ^ Keogh, Dermot (2006). "Irish Refugee Policy, Anti-Semitism, and Nazism at the Approach of World War Two". In Holfter, Gisela M. B. (ed.). German-speaking Exiles in Ireland 1933-1945. GDR monitor. Vol. 63. Rodopi. pp. 37–74. ISBN 9789042020337.
  15. ^ "Briscoe Daughter Now a Nun". The New York Times. 3 May 1964.
  16. ^ Roth, Andreas (2000). Mr Bewley in Berlin. Four Courts Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-1-85182-559-2.
  17. ^ Macardle, Dorothy (1965). The Irish Republic. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 401.
  18. ^ a b Donegan, Conor; O’Connor, Emmet (12 November 2021). "Charlie McGuinness Archives - Waterford Harbour Tides & Tales". Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  19. ^ The Irish Revolution, 1912-1923, p.94, Pat McCarthy, Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2015, ISBN 978-1-84682-410-4
  20. ^ O'Reilly, Terence, Rebel Heart: George Lennon Flying Column Commander, p164, Mercier 2009, ISBN 1-85635-649-3
  21. ^ "The Short and Tragic Life of an Irish Dandy". independent.ie. 19 February 2012. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  22. ^ Irish Times, 20 November 1924
  23. ^ "Shot in a Taxi-Cab", Freeman's Journal, 20 November 1924, p. 5;
  24. ^ Briscoe, Robert (1958). For the life of me. Little, Brown. p. 172.
  25. ^ See Briscoe's successful application for a military service pension under the Military Service Pensions Act, 1934. Available online at Military Service (1916–1923) Pensions Collection - http://mspcsearch.militaryarchives.ie/search.aspx?formtype=advanced. Reference number MSP34REF297
  26. ^ Irish Military Archives, Military Service (1916–1923) Pension Collection, Neil Blaney, MSP34REF32265. Available online at http://mspcsearch.militaryarchives.ie/search.aspx?formtype=advanced.
  27. ^ The Time of My Life by Robert Briscoe
  28. ^ Keogh, Dermot (1998). Jews in Twentieth-century Ireland: Refugees, Anti-semitism and the Holocaust. Cork University Press. p. 283. ISBN 978-1-85918-150-8.
  29. ^ "Robert Briscoe". cosmos.ucc.ie. Archived from the original on 29 September 2011.
  30. ^ "The Zion Muleteers of Gallipoli". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
  31. ^ "John Heny Patterson Biography - Zionism and Israel - Biographies". zionism-israel.com.
  32. ^ "Dreams of Zion, Tablet Magazine".
  33. ^ O'Dwyer, Thomas (28 July 2006). "Free Stater: Just for interest: A story of Dev, Bob Briscoe and Israel/Palestine - "Son of a gun"". freestater.blogspot.com. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  34. ^ O'halpin, Eunan Defending Ireland: The Irish State and Its Enemies Since 1922 : 2000 pp220-222
  35. ^ "Dictionary of Irish Biography: The Lithuanian revolutionary, a family of artists, the upper-crust hardliner and the shoe-burning paterfamilias". irishbiography.blogspot.com. 18 February 2010. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  36. ^ "Lord Mayors of Dublin 1665–2020" (PDF). Dublin City Council. June 2020. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
  37. ^ Keogh, Dermot Jews in Twentieth-century Ireland p7.
  38. ^ "Speech by the Taoiseach on visit to the Jewish Museum, Dublin". Department of the Taoiseach. 2006. Retrieved 9 June 2012.
  39. ^ Benson p12
  40. ^ "From the archives: How Charlie Won the War (1983)". Politico.ie. Archived from the original on 15 November 2012. Retrieved 9 October 2012.
  41. ^ "Ben Briscoe Follows Father to Become Dublin's 2nd Jewish Mayor". apnewsarchive.com. July 1988. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  42. ^ a b "To Re-Create Irish Revolution on "Playhouse 90"". The Times-Mail. 22 June 1957. p. 11.
  43. ^ a b "Robert Briscoe, 'The Fabulous Irishman'". The New York Times.
  44. ^ "Fabulous Irishman". The Boston Globe. 28 June 1957. p. 19.
[edit]
Civic offices
Preceded by Lord Mayor of Dublin
1956–1957 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Lord Mayor of Dublin
1961–1962 		Succeeded by
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