Report on Global Anti-Semitism

Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
January 5, 2005

I.  Anti-Semitism

Ireland

During the reporting period, the Irish Times newspaper reported three instances of anti-Semitism in the country. One incident included a swastika painted on the Irish Jewish Museum in Dublin, while the other incidents involved vandalism at a Jewish cemetery and synagogue. A 2003 study by the European Commission's European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia described the country as having "relatively little reported in the way of a problem with anti-Semitism." In fact, the study categorized all the 2003 cases as "abusive behavior" (threatening letters or phone calls), totaling only 16. Recent evidence shows that these acts may be interrelated with the emergence of a racist group calling itself Irish Nationalist, which has expressed anti-British and anti-Israeli views. In spite of these developments, the country has very little evidence of anti-Semitism