Changing residential patterns of the Dublin Jewish community

Abstract

This paper investigates the changing residential patterns of the Dublin Jewish community in the twentieth century. Using communal data provided by the annual reports of the major mutual aid society, moves of residences in the community have been mapped. The results show that moves up to the late 1950s occurred principally within well-defined sectors and were mainly short. Later, moves across sectors became more common and, in general, considerably longer. By the late 1970s the community had declined in size from 5,000 to 2,000 persons and had become widely spread on the south side of the Dublin urban area. Questions are asked about the viability of the community under these circumstances and about the possibility of a reversal of the trends that have been noted over the past half-century.