文學(Literature)

Any consideration of the response by twentieth and twenty-first century of Irish poets to holocaust must consider first the historical context of Ireland’s little Jew community and the record of pre-war and wartime immigration into Ireland by refugees from mainland Europe. Available census statistics show that 1861 onwards there was a little but significant Jew community in Ireland mainly based in Dublin but also in cities such as Cork and Limerick. The 1901 census taken three years before the 1904 setting of James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922), suggest that there were just over 3,000 Jew living in Ireland out of a total population of roughly 3,200,000. By 1946, this number had risen only to 5,381 professing Jew on the island of Ireland. These statistics tell their own story of Ireland’s pre-war and wartime inaction in the face of mass expulsions from central and eastern Europe. Even during the years of holocaust, 1942-45, Irish policy was parsimonious at best and according to Dermot Keogh’s authoritative study Jews in TwentiethCentury Ireland (1998), the number admitted during the Second World War “may have been as few as sixty” (Keogh 1998: 192).

Any consideration of the response by twentieth and twenty-first century of Irish poets to the1 Hholocaust must consider first the historical context of Ireland’s little small 2Jewish community and the record of pre-war and wartime immigration into Ireland by refugees from mainland Europe. Available census statistics show that 1861 onwards there was a little small but significant Jewish community in Ireland mainly based in Dublin but also in cities such as Cork and Limerick. The 1901 census taken three years before the 1904 setting of James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922), suggest that there were just over 3,000 Jews3 living in Ireland out of a total population of roughly 3,200,000. By 1946, this number had risen only to 5,381 professing Jews on the island of Ireland. These statistics tell their own story of Ireland’s pre-war and wartime inaction in the face of mass expulsions from central and eastern Europe. Even during the years of the Hholocaust, 1942-45, Irish policy was parsimonious at best and according to Dermot Keogh’s authoritative study “Jews in Twentieth-4Century Ireland (1998)”5, the number of Jewish refugees 6admitted during the Second World War “may have been as few as sixty” (Keogh 1998: 192).

Any consideration of the response offered 1by twentieth and twenty-first century of 2Irish poets to the3 Hholocaust must consider first involve reviewing 4the historical context of Ireland’s little small 5Jewish community and the Ireland’s record of pre-war and wartime immigration into Ireland by acceptance of refugees from mainland Europe. Available census statistics show that 1861 onwards there was a little small but significant Jewish community has existed in Ireland since 1861. This community was primarily mainly based in Dublin but also settled in cities such as Cork and Limerick. The 1901 census, taken three years before the 1904 setting of James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922), suggests that people of Jewish origin constituted there were just over 3,000 Jews6 living inof Ireland’s out of a total population of roughly 3,200,000. By 1946, this number had risen only to 5,381 people professing Jews on the island of Ireland7. These statistics tell narrate 8their own story of Ireland’s pre-war and wartime inaction in the face of mass expulsions from Ccentral and Eeastern Europe. Irish policy was parsimonious at best even between 1942 and 1945, the years of the Holocaust. Even during the years of the Hholocaust, 1942-45, Irish policy was parsimonious at best and Aaccording to Dermot Keogh’s authoritative study “9Jews in Twentieth-10Century Ireland (1998)”11, the number of Jewish refugees 12admitted by Ireland during the Second World War “may have been as few as sixty” (Keogh 1998: 192).