It’s finally official.

Ireland has an antisemitic problem.

With the distraction of war and missiles raining down on Tel Aviv, you may have missed it, but it is finally official: Ireland has an antisemitic problem. Perhaps many in Israel might simply shrug and say – We told you so.

In a report compiled by the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland (JRCI) titled “Ireland Antisemitic Incidents Report: A Baseline of Lived Experience,” antisemitism in Ireland is laid bare.

The report, the JCRI states, highlights a significant data gap: notably mentioning the lack of a national system for tracking antisemitic incidents in Ireland, which is itself a rather strange and concerning fact.

The report covers a six-month period, from July 2025 to January 2026, and records a total of 143 incidents. Although these numbers may seem small at first glance, given that the Jewish community in Ireland is around 2,200, the report states that this represents a “high density of alarm.”

Additionally, the report concludes that because “fear, fatigue, and low expectations of outcome” all discourage individuals from reporting incidents, the problem of antisemitism is likely much larger than the number of reported incidents.

The report’s findings are disturbing.

Three-quarters of all incidents of Jew hatred occurred in “everyday environments,” with a fifth taking place in schools and universities. Over a third involved “verbal abuse or slurs,” and a quarter included “threats and intimidation.” Stories of conspiracy theories, Holocaust denial, and the dehumanization of Jews are common. Nearly a quarter of young Irish adults aged 18-29 deny established facts about the scope and nature of the Holocaust.

Notably, the JCRI points out failures in institutional responses that “compound the harm,” including a “refusal to explicitly recognize and name antisemitism”—a form of downplaying, denial, and deflection. This is despite the fact that they quote an EU-Barometer poll from November last, which found that 41% of Irish people believe antisemitism is a problem in Ireland.

Critically, the report boldly states, “Identity alone is enough to trigger hostility.” This is not about valid political disagreement on Israeli politics or the war in Gaza. Jewish or Israeli identity cues, including “Accent, speaking Hebrew in public, wearing Jewish symbols,” were enough to provoke insults and threats.

Stories of intimidation and abuse, including in hospitals, universities, and schools, as well as specific incidents involving children, are detailed. “Jew Rat” and “All Zionists are barred from The (unnamed) Pub” are just some of the graffiti and signage that are openly tolerated.

Here’s where it gets complicated. Irish readers of the report, I imagine, may bristle at equating antisemitism (which is widely denied in Ireland) and anti-Zionism (which is widely championed).

The term “Zionist,” when used as an insult, doesn’t necessarily refer to all Jews but is, without question, a common label, slur, in Ireland for Israeli Jews. From my experience, explicit expressions of “Anti-Zionism” in Ireland are not subtle signals that Israel should cease to exist. Let’s be honest: Anti-Zionism isn’t a call for a two-state solution. It’s not a nuanced argument for a more inclusive and less discriminatory Israeli society. Anti-Zionism means that the creation of Israel was—and continues to be—a profound mistake.

Criticizing the Israeli government is not antisemitic. Forcefully condemning 60 years of an increasingly brutal Israeli occupation of the West Bank is not antisemitic. Questioning Jewish self-determination, the fundamental principle behind Zionism, is, for many Jews, but certainly not all, antisemitic. The report is not, however, about anti-Zionism but about antisemitism in Ireland.

There are all too common, if unintended, instances of antisemitic tropes appearing in Irish politics and media, including the disturbing accusation made by perhaps the most respected Irish liberal opinion writer that, for Israeli leaders, “the killing of children is the ultimate expression of power“. The description by one Irish parliamentarian that the Israeli state was “filthy” is frankly inexplicable on face value.

Perhaps the most important long-term implication of this report isn’t what’s inside it—disturbing, sometimes dark stories of Irish Jews—but how Irish society responds to it. Mainly, how does the liberal Irish establishment, including those in the mainstream media and senior political roles, react to it?

This is their moment of truth.

Will we hear feeble words of concern that try to dissect the report’s findings to separate obvious, blatant, and dark unacceptable antisemitism, but equivocate on the undeniable visceral collective anti-Israeli rhetoric?

I wonder how many politicians on the so-called Irish radical left will find it impossible to acknowledge the findings of the report without instinctively criticizing Israel in the same sentence.

What might be the official response of the Irish President, Catherine Connolly?

Connolly, during her election campaign, called not the government of Israel genocidal but Israel itself a “genocidal state.” I doubt that many Irish people found those words disturbing, but as I’ve written before, while a government can be removed, a state can only be eliminated.

Will our former President, Michael D. Higgins, apologize or at least express some regret over his choice of words when downplaying similar stories of antisemitism in Ireland in May 2024, stories relayed to him in person at Áras an Uachtaráin by the Chief Rabbi of Ireland and Maurice Cohen, a co-author of this report?

It’s worth recalling what the President publicly said the very next day, after the Chief Rabbi and Cohen had expressed their concerns about rising antisemitism in Ireland.

Instead of communicating their concerns, the President accused the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland of fueling antisemitism in Ireland.

 “Encouraging fear amongst the Jewish community in Ireland is deeply irresponsible. I think the Israeli ambassador has been deliberately suggesting that all people of Jewish belief are now at risk and are being threatened. There is no evidence for this.”

This is a pivotal moment in Irish political discourse. Will the Irish establishment class rise to the occasion and dare to admit that antisemitism is not uncommon in Ireland, that Ireland is not immune to this virus, and that the findings of this report are of profound concern to Irish Jews and should be taken seriously?

Will the publication of this report be characterized by acknowledgment, empathy, and self-reflection or by denial, minimization, and deflection?

Two weeks after the report was published, the Irish establishment’s response is depressingly disheartening but not surprising.

Based on the available reporting on the release of the JRCI report (2 March 2026), there is no clear evidence that either the Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) or Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister), President Catherine Connolly, or former President Michael D Higgins, or leader of the opposition Mary Lou McDonald of Sinn Féin have issued a specific public statement in response to the report itself.

Their collective silence is deafening as it is telling.

The Irish Foreign Minister, Helen McEntee, did issue a statement expressing concern about the report’s findings, acknowledging the “undeniable picture of the difficult situation currently experienced by Ireland’s Jewish communities”. 

But the fact that the most senior Irish Minister to issue a statement on antisemitism in Ireland was the Foreign Minister speaks volumes.

Why would Irish Jews living in Ireland be considered under the purview of the Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs?

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)