Ballybough Cemetery

'Ballybough Cemetery' in Fairview, is Dublin's oldest Jewish Cemetery.

On the 28th of October 1718, Alexander Felix (David Penso), Jacob Do Porto, and David Machado Do Sequeira, on behalf of the Ashkennazim leased a plot of land, from Captain Chichester Phillips of Drumcondra Castle (an MP in the Irish Parliament).[1] and the graveyard was built.[2]

In the 1700's a small number of jews had settled in the Annadale area off ellis ave. (what is now philipsburg avenue), fairview, most of these marrano jews came from Spain(some from the Netherlands) and Portugal, escaping the inquisition.[3][4]

A mortuary chapel added in 1857 ( inscribed on the front, Built in the Year 5618, with the Hebrew date 5618)[3], and contains more than 200 graves.[5] The last burial there was in 1958.[6] Most of Dublin's Jewish community would be buried in Dolphins Barn cemetery now.

Close by is another grave plot (sometimes called Ballybough Cemetery), locally called the suicide plot which was used for suicide victims, robbers and highwaymen, which had the practice of driving wooden stakes through the corpses hearts[3], this is where the author of Dracula, who lived locally Bram Stoker used to visit when he was young and influenced his Novel.

[3]

Notes

  1. ^ History of the Jewish Cemetery Fairview Marino History
  2. ^ The Parish of Clonturk - Drumcondra, with Notice of Marino and its Vicinity.
  3. ^ a b c d 5619 The Jewish Cemetery on Fairview Strand, by Diarmuid G. Hiney, Dublin Historical Record, Vol. 50, No. 2, Autumn, 1997.
  4. ^ http://www.eoinobrien.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/from-the-waters-of-sionjrcps1981.pdf From the waters of sion to Liffeyside, Jewish contribution to medical and culture, Eoin O'Brien
  5. ^ The Jewish cemetery at Ballybough in Dublin by Bernard Shillman, Paper read before the Jewish Historical Society of England, July 6, 1925
  6. ^ Ballybough Cemetery, Fairview Jewish Ireland Website