Robert Briscoe

This biography reveals the full significance of Robert Briscoe's influence within the contentious political culture of the early Irish state, as well as reinforcing his importance to the global Zionist rescue effort of the 1930s. Drawing on a wealth of previously unavailable archival material, the book charts Briscoe's evolution from a fringe Sinn Féin activist in 1917 to a member of Michael Collins's personal staff in 1921. It also analyses his agonizing decision to abandon Collins and support the anti-Treaty stance of his close friend and political hero, Éamon de Valera, before becoming a founding member of Fianna Fáil in 1926. Most importantly of all, the book investigates Briscoe's evolving Jewish awareness, looking at his involvement in a traumatic immigration endeavour and also at his engagement with Ze'ev Jabotinsky and the New Zionist Organisation, under whose auspices he led political rescue missions to Poland, America and South Africa.

Contents: 1894-1914 Prelude: A Jewish Formation in Nationalist Dublin - 1915-1921 Nationalist Awakening: A Republican Formation in Jewish Dublin, Revolutionary New York and Weimar Berlin - 1922-1926 The Irish Tragedy: Internecine Civil War, Anti-Semitism, Exile and Wilderness - 1927-1931 Republican Renaissance: Fianna Fáil and de Valera, the Voice of an Anti-Treaty Underclass - 1932-1934 Zionist Awakening: The Nazi Machtergreifung and Jewish Persecution - 1935-1937 Political Reality: Immigration Failure, League of Nations and the New Zionist Organisation (Revisionists) - 1938-1939 Political Dichotomy, Parochial Anti-Semitism and Revisionist Apex: Dublin Exclusionism and Missions to Poland, America and South Africa - 1940-1943 Political Retrenchment: Nationalist Reintegration and Zionist Withdrawal - 1944-1953 Irreconcilable Differences: Financial Difficulties, the Holocaust and the Birth of Israel - 1954-1969 Epilogue: A Political and Personal Swansong.