THEY WERE our first eastern European immigrants.
They contributed disproportionately to public, literary, legal and business life on this island. And yet, slowly, inexorably, their number has declined. They are Ireland's Jews.
It was not until the 1880s that Jews came to this island in any number, and most of those who arrived were fleeing pogroms in the Baltic states and Russia. Indeed, on arrival here, at Cork, Limerick, Dublin and Belfast, many of them thought they were in the US.
By 1881 they numbered 394. That figure reached 1,506 in 1891, and was double that 10 years later.
The numbers continued to rise until 1946, when Ireland's Jewish population peaked at 3,907.
Raphael Siev, curator of the Irish Jewish Museum in Dublin's Portobello, said there were now approximately 1,900 Jews living on the island of Ireland.
The "newer" Jews have come from Israel, South Africa, North America, Australia and eastern Europe. Most have come from Israel. Approximately 1,000 Jews are in Dublin, with 500 in the rest of the Republic. Some 150 live in Northern Ireland, mostly in Belfast.
"There are now more Irish Jews living in Israel than are living here," he said.
The Orthodox Jews worship at the synagogue in Dublin's Terenure and Belfast's Somerton Road, and the Progressive Jews worship at the synagogue in Dublin's Rathmines.
The synagogue in Cork no longer has regular services, and when it does it is necessary to "import" male Jews from outside the city to have the 12 necessary to hold such a service.
There is also the Jewish interdenominational school at Zion Road in Dublin's Rathgar.
Ireland's Jewish population is also an elderly population as most young Irish Jews have emigrated to larger Jewish centres in Manchester and London particularly, as well as further afield.
Mr Siev, in an interval between showing visiting school groups around his museum on Walworth Road, explains Ireland's great missed opportunity.
"We could've taken in the best brains of Europe. The German Jewish population was highly educated. America did and got the atomic bomb and space travel. We were very short-sighted.
"We really don't know the damage we did ourselves. They would've turned the country around. It was a real tragedy," he says.
He is referring to the fact that few Jews were allowed into Ireland during and after the second World War
because of Ireland having insufficient work for its own citizens, according to official explanations at the time.
The fact that Jews have played such a significant role in life on this island was "a credit to Ireland, where if you have ability you can get on without discrimination".
Dublin City Council is holding a free walking tour of "Jewish Dublin" on Tuesday, May 27th, leaving the Barge pub, Charlemont Street, at 7pm