Antisemitic attitudes among Christians in Ireland are “disturbing” and “Medieval,” due in large part to entrenched religious beliefs held by the Catholic community, according to a new survey, the Times of Israel reported.
By Rachel Avraham
Antisemitic attitudes among Christians in Ireland are “disturbing” and “Medieval,” due in large part to entrenched religious beliefs held by the Catholic community, according to a new survey, the Times of Israel reported. Conducted by Professors Motti Inbari of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke and Kirill Bumin of Boston University and Metropolitan College, the study’s findings revealed even stronger anti-Jewish sentiments in Ireland than in the United Kingdom, which is predominantly Protestant, the Times of Israel emphasized, thus highlighting a difference between Catholic and Protestant communities regarding levels of antisemitism.
According to the report, “The December 2024 study of 1,014 Christian adults in Ireland found that a third believe Jewish people “still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust. Some 49 percent agreed with the statement “Jews are more loyal to Israel than this country” and 36% said they believe Jews “have too much power in the business world.” About 31% agreed with statements that Jews “don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind,” and that they are hated “because of the way they behave.””
The Times of Israel added that Ireland’s support for Israel is just a third of that in the United States: “Only 11.3% of Irish Christians support Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians, compared to 42.3% of Americans polled last year, the report found. Conversely, 45.6% of Irish respondents support the Palestinian side of the conflict, versus just 11.2% of Americans.”
Jamie O’Mahony, a pro-Israel activist in Ireland, told CBN news that he was not surprised by these statistics: “Ireland has a history of being the most anti-Israel country in Europe. That goes back to the modern founding of the nation state in 1948. Ireland did not recognize that country until 1963. We had a prime minister during the Second World War who signed a book of condolences to Adolph Hitler in the German Embassy.”
However, he noted that antisemitism in Ireland goes back even further than that: “In 1904, in the city where I am originally from, Limerick, we had the Catholic priest from that city basically launch a pogrom against the Jewish families living within Limerick at that time, claiming that the Jews were essentially leaches within Limerick and they needed to be rounded out of the city. Unfortunately, he was received with wide acclaim and praise at that time.”
O’Mahony recognized in his CBN news interview that the 1904 pogrom and the Second World War were a long time ago, yet he stressed: “Over the past few decades, Ireland has had a very hostile policy to Israel. Since October 7th, that has merely intensified. Unfortunately, these statistics are not surprising. I am part of a group called the Ireland Israel Alliance, which is made up of both Christians and Jews living within Ireland. But sadly, the narrative that we see all over the country and in our local towns and cities, across all of the ten political parties within our parliament, is basically one-way traffic against the Jewish state.”
O’Mahony concluded in his interview: “We are trying to change things on the ground, but unfortunately it is an uphill struggle at the moment. The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign have really upped their activity. They hold meetings once per week across many cities and towns across Ireland. Across the parliament of Ireland, from the far left to the center, as there really is not a far right in Ireland, we have seen a broad acceptance of the BDS narrative towards Israel. There is a huge lack of balance. Anything Israel related is seen in an ominous and dark light at the moment. Israel has become a dirty word.”
