Large Jewish Population in Pre-Modern Ireland

In the comic strip "Stone Soup," a Jewish character is getting very enthusiastic about St. Patrick's Day and another character tells him to stop pretending to be Irish.

He responds, "Have you ever heard of the Jews of Latke Lomen? The O'Weinsteins? The O'Goldbergs?"

He then starts stringing together Irish and Yiddish slang as the climax to it, but I can't remember what it was.

Soooo...

Make it so that there's a distinctive Jewish population in Ireland. Bonus points if they actually live in a place called "Latke Lomen" and have names like "O'Weinstein."

(Given how the O'This and O'That stuff means "son of" and refers to purported descendants of people like Niell of the Nine Hostages, it might take a group of Jews getting to Ireland very early to pull the latter off.)
 
Hmmm, well from what I know of the Jews in Ireland, most of them arrived in the 1800s thanks to the Russian pogroms across the Baltic. However, Ireland was not necessarily where they were aiming for, many were probably trying to get to London "where the streets are paved with gold" and ended up in Eire due to fate or bad planning. Maybe some of them were going their deliberately, why? I cannot say. So greater pogroms would help.

However, one thing that would stand in the way was the Catholic church. They were amazingly good at stirring up resentment against the "murderers of Christ". The Irish weren't naturally discriminative of the Jews, though they could be nasty bastards when they wanted to be. So I suppose diminishing the influence of the church is another thing.

As for the O'Weinsteins or the O'Goldbergs, if a Jew were to arrive in rural Ireland aka. Connaught, then theirs a slim chance that he may be welcomed in a Gaelic speaking community, where his children will be christianed "O". Though it is a very slim chance, like many immigrants they'd stay in the more metropolitan urban areas.

Incidently my grand-father told me a while back that one of his relatives had a Jewish surname, so I am possibly slightly Jewish.
 
I'd guess, have them be more accepted in England and be allowed to practice trades. From that, there'd be a few more Jews in Ireland than IOTL. I'd say, have either a strong Jewish leader who manages to establish a community beyond the areas controlled by England (how?) and/or some Irish leader that welcomes the Jews into his area. If i was doing a TL, i'd do both.
 
Top