Ireland Loathes Zionism, Yet Its Actions Helped Create Israel

Oh, the irony of poor Ireland. It is one of Europe’s most strident opponents of Israel, yet, perhaps, the foremost example irrefutably proving why Israel must exist.

For starters, The Republic of Ireland’s fire-breathing animosity towards Jewish self-determination is rooted in irrationally grafting its own troubled history onto that of Israelis and Palestinians—when there is no coherent commonality.

“There is little need to explain why, in the Republic of Ireland, which gained independence after centuries of brutally imposed British rule, such sentiments are strong,” concluded a 2026 report by Tel Aviv University’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry. “In 2026, anyone who sees themself as a David fighting Goliath automatically identifies with the Palestinians.”

Ireland’s latest attack on the Jewish State was boycotting Eurovision. Instead of airing the finals, state broadcaster, RTÉ2, aired the Eurovision-themed Father Ted episode “A Song for Europe,” known for the parody song “My Lovely Horse.” But they looked like horses’ asses when the Israeli singer Noam Bettan placed second with the song “Michelle.” Whoops.

Ireland’s undignified, discriminatory behavior is not shocking. In fact, punitive boycotts against Jews seem to be part of their DNA. This was most evident in what is known as the Limerick Pogrom of 1904.

We begin this sordid chapter of Ireland’s history in 1850—when about 35 Jewish families from Lithuania, approximately 150 people, escaped brutal pogroms in Russia to settle in Limerick, Ireland where they created a community on Colooney Street (now Wolfe Tone Street).

The Jews who arrived were poor and desperate after Tsar Nicholas II had launched a scapegoating campaign that put their lives in grave danger. According to IrishHistory.com:

It was no surprise that the most virulent strain of anti-Semitism arose in Russia, and it reached unprecedented heights during the reign of Tsar Nicholas II, when his secret police tried to clamp down on the growing revolutionary movement.

Determined to stem the tide of revolt, his agents produced the notorious Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a fabricated document that purported to be the minutes of a secret meeting held by a group of powerful Jews who planned to take over the world.

Although the Protocols were exposed as a clumsy forgery, they were astonishingly successful; they were translated into every major language and even today are still in print and widely believed. In Ireland, some conservative Catholics expressed their faith in them.

One of those religious leaders in Ireland was Fr John Creagh CSSR, spiritual director of the Arch Confraternity of the Sacred Heart. Creagh exploited the fact that Limerick was a poor community to stir up resentment against the town’s Jews, which he viewed as suspicious outsiders. In 1904, he targeted the town’s Jewish families from his pulpit:

“The Jews were once chosen by God. But they rejected Christ, they crucified Him. They called down the curse of His precious blood on their heads…They were scattered over the earth after the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD, and they bore away with them an unquenchable hatred for the name of Jesus Christ and his followers…

The Jews came to Limerick apparently the most miserable tribe imaginable, with want on their faces, and now they have enriched themselves and can boast a very considerable house property in the city. Their rags have been exchanged for silk…How do the Jews manage to make their money? Some of you may know their methods better than I do, but it is still my duty to expose these methods.”

The vile sermon activated a wave of anti-Jewish rage:

At least 200 people angrily rampaged through Colooney Street, “pelting the Jews with mud, breaking windows and throwing stones (including at a Rabbi). The police moved in and eleven were arrested and later prosecuted…. After a lull, the violence flared again in March; in April there were 40 attacks on the Jews and the anti-Semitic stridency of the Arch Confraternity continued.”

While the violence was terrifying, it was the subsequent boycott of Jewish businesses, instigated by Creagh, that did the most damage:

In the early months of the boycott, Creagh declared that “the Jews are a curse to Limerick, and if I am the means of driving them out, I shall have accomplished one good thing in my life” and that he actually did so is a primary plank of the canonical narrative of Limerick 1904.

Almost three months after its launch…the result that all but a handful of Limerick’s 35 Jewish families were “ruined and on the verge of starvation.” …The great majority had departed by the time of the 1926 census, which recorded just 33 Jews resident in Limerick city and county.

So, the Jews came to Ireland to escape persecution, only to be revictimized. They were rejected and forced to flee Limerick because they were seen as darker-skinned outsiders. Which is ironic, because Ireland’s most obnoxious antizionist activists portray Israelis as white colonizers and demand they abandon Israel to return to Europe, including Ireland.

Here is what the Irish need to understand. Zionism was a late-19^th and early 20^th Century response to fearsome episodes like that in Limerick. At the time, there was a heated debate on whether Jews should stay in Europe to fight for emancipation or return to their indigenous homeland.

What cannot be debated is that every bit of abuse was directly connected to the Jews’ refugee status—from getting blamed for killing Jesus, scapegoated for the Black Plague, the Crusades, the Inquisition and paradoxically being scapegoated for both the excesses of communism and capitalism.

The Zionism debate effectively ended after the Holocaust. Israel was created to protect the Jews after 2 millennia of European sadism. So, the Jews didn’t create Zionism on their own—it primarily resulted from the Europeans ensuring their continent was inhospitable. If today’s uppity left-wing Irish activists have a problem with Zionism, they can look in the mirror—as they helped author it in the bloody streets of Limerick.

It turns out that creating Israel was the right decision—as some European habits are hard to break. In early June, mobs in Belfast, Ireland, wearing balaclavas, stormed immigrant neighborhoods, terrorizing families and burning down homes.

The thugs were allegedly incited by a crime committed by an immigrant, but we all know this was just a convenient excuse to target outsiders. The New York Times reports:

The violence erupted after a brutal stabbing attack in Belfast, after which the authorities charged Hadi Alodid, a 30-year-old Sudanese refugee, with attempted murder. Graphic footage of the assault spread quickly online and was amplified by far-right activists, who called for protests and shared plans for roadblocks and locations for demonstrations.

Violent demonstrations continued, in spite of calls for calm, including from the family of Stephen Ogilvie, the victim, who remains in the hospital.

During the unrest, a group of masked men tried to reach a hotel that houses asylum seekers near Glengormley. They confronted a line of police officers in riot gear, hijacked a parked van, set it alight and pushed it in the direction of the police.

Just like with the pogroms in Limerick, the politically motivated instigators opportunistically exploited poverty to incite violence:

The Rev. Jacob Mercer, 37, a minister in the Church of Ireland in Glengormley said, “There are a number of highly deprived communities who feel they are not being listened to or cared for by the authorities and for them, that’s in contrast to people who get a free hotel to stay in and free food. Some locals think, rightly or wrongly, he said, that “it feels like the government cares more about looking after the immigrants than after us.”

Such sentiment has increased with the rise of right-wing populist parties, including Reform U.K., led by Nigel Farage, and a new far-right rival, called Restore Britain, Mr. Mercer added.

Sorry, Ireland, but these ugly attacks on immigrants have destroyed your supposed moral authority. Both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, like most of Europe, are prone to intolerant spasms of violence against those perceived as outsiders. The victims this time were Sudanese instead of Jews.

Why? Only because we weren’t there for you to get your intolerant hands on us.

Instead, we were far away in Israel, safe from your xenophobic and jingoistic blood lust which intermittently bubbles to the surface like clockwork. Thanks, again, Ireland, for proving in 1904, and now in 2026, that you can’t be trusted with our fate.

I’m glad your most radical Jew-hating activists want us back, after 2000 years of driving us off the continent. But I think we are happy where we are and plan to stay in our sunny Mediterranean homeland. Meanwhile, you can continue your bizarre obsession with Israel, ensconced in your lovely island’s moral fog.

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