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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 in Ballybough from Chichester Phillips of Drumcondra Castle.

Jewish Cemetery, Fairview Strand

Situated on present day Fairview Strand - this plot of land measuring “half a rood and five perches” or roughly 2,500 square metres was the burial place for the Jews of Dublin up to 1900 when the present cemetery in Dolphin’s Barn was opened. The only burials to take place in the Fairview Strand cemetery after the opening of Dolphin’s Bam took place in 1901, 1908, 1946, and 1958, the last and perhaps most interesting. This burial was unusual in that Maud Jeanette Harris sought and was granted permission to be buried beside her father, Herman Boas in the same grave.

In 1908 Lewis Harris was elected an Alderman of the City of Dublin. Unfortunately the day before he was to be made Lord Mayor he died and was buried in Fairview Strand, beside his wife Juliette. Along the East Wall of the cemetery there is a small plaque which simply states: “To our beloved sister Dinah Minnie” set up by an American solicitor about 1932.

Initially the burial ground in Fairview was rented to representatives of the Jews of Dublin for a period of 40 years. In 1746 it’s officials were threatened with prosecution for the recovery of £7-10-0 rent arrears due on plot. They sought assistance from the Spanish / Portuguese Synagogue in London. They suggested that they should buy the plot. Consequently the plot was bought on the 17th of September 1748 by the London congregation acting through, and in the name of Michael Phillips, Crane Lane, Dublin as a leasehold for 1,000 years at the annual rent of one peppercorn. This entailed payment of £34-10 shillings and the surrender of the 1718 lease.

Michael Phillips reported that part of the wall of the cemetery had collapsed and was in need of urgent repair. This wall had been erected to block out the view from the street and to keep intruders out of the cemetery. Another important consideration was the prevalence of grave robbers and vandals. A sum of £10 to £15 was needed for repairs to the breeze wall. In 1857 a stone wall was built around the cemetery. Also in the same year, 1857 the gate lodge was built and the logo 5618 carved on it. A caretaker has been resident in the gate lodge ever since. Presently the incumbents are a Mr. and Mrs O’Neill. 5618 is the Jewish calendar of 1857. This gate lodge has been designated a listed building by Dublin Corporation since 1991. The house was erected as a permanent replacement for a temporary hut built by the Cohen family in 1798.

The Jewish calendar is based on the Lunar month, with names for each month which date back to the Babylonian captivity of the Jews in 5751 (3760 B.C.).

Regarding the wall around the cemetery, the taking of headstones and some of the bodies in fact, was quite an ordinary occurrence, hence the need for security. A quaint anecdote is told about the headstone of Solomon Cohen which disappeared, and one of his sons on visiting a Christian friend in the area noted that his father was buried in the chimney breast.

Jewish Cemetery gravestones

To-day there are 148 tombstones still standing in the little cemetery (list to come); which are inscribed in Hebrew, and English, with Jewish calendar month of death, plus the birth, age, place of origin of the person. In 1839 the laws of the Dublin Jewish Congregation included one which stated that after every burial, the body should be watched over for a week. More than one person was allowed to watch at a time, but one must be a Jew. The oldest standing tombstone in the graveyard is that of Joseph Wills. Dated 1777, he was known as “Jacob Frenchman” to his friends.

The Cohen tombstones all have a depiction of hands over their remains. The reason for this is to show that they were descendants of the Cohens who were the Priests of Israel and the hands are shown as blessing the people. This custom has still survived. If you go to a Synagogue on Yom Kippur, (the day of atonement) you will see the Cohens, who are the Priests of Israel blessing the community, standing in front of the Ark. There is a headstone in the cemetery to one of the Cohens, who although a very wealthy man spent most of his life in abject poverty. Known as the “Miser Cohen,” in order to confuse his neighbours would fry onions, then open the window and let the smell waft into neighbours houses giving the impression that he was frying steak. When he died he left £45,000, which in mid Victorian times was quite a sizeable fortune. A Cohen does not attend a funeral. Obviously they had to be buried somewhere, so consequently one part of the graveyard is usually devoted to the Cohens. So whenever you go into an orthodox Jewish graveyard, you will always see one section devoted to the Cohens, and you will ahvays know they are Cohens by the two joined hands depicted on the tombstones.

Location of Jewish Cemetery, Fairview

Thanks to ““5618 and all that” for this information.

See also:

• History of Fairview & Marino, from “5618-and-all-that”
• History of the Jews in Fairview & Marino
• History of Fairview & Marino, by Dillon Cosgrove 1909