IT WAS the first wedding to be held in the Irish Jewish museum in 60 years, and a young man's way of saying thanks to Ireland -- the country that had saved his father and his family.

This rare Jewish wedding, which was held on Walworth Street in Dublin's Portobello last May, involved the American son of a man who fled the Nazis via Dublin just before the war in 1938, having been granted a visa and come to collect it from the American authorities in Dublin.

The history of the Jewish community in Ireland goes back many generations, with Jews having played a significant role in public, literary, legal and business life on this island. While their numbers have declined, with now just 1,900 Jews living here, this tiny wave of Jewish immigration made its mark on every area of Irish life.

I was blessed to grow up in a community in Terenure where I had Jewish neighbours, and the Terenure Orthodox synagogue was just down the road. For as long back as I can remember I was taught to tolerate and enjoy the differences that ethnicity and religion offered, and so I grew up with a huge interest in the Jewish faith. On a Friday night as a child I would listen to Mrs Levenson next door singing over the lighted Sabbath candles for the Passover.

The tale of Irish Jews has always fascinated me. A few weeks ago I took part in a Dublin City Council walking tour, entitled 'The Jewish Community in Dublin', by historian Pat Liddy. No more than 80 people were expected on the tour, but numbers topped 250.

Clanbrassil Street, on the south side of the River Liffey, used to be the hub of Jewish Dublin with just about the whole street being quintessentially Jewish. The Star of David decorated so many businesses that the area became known as Little Jerusalem.

When they emigrated, along with many others, in the Fifties, their numbers declined. Unfortunately the good times of recent decades have not brought the Irish Jews back. Their old neighbourhood is next door to a new, burgeoning Islamic quarter, and halal food stores have replaced the kosher.

All that survives today is The Bretzel Bakery in Lennox Street, which continues to sell kosher bread, although no longer Jewish-owned.

It's worth noting that the 2006 Census no longer includes Jewish as a specified religious group.

However, some barriers still exist for this small community and the image of the Jewish person as the perennial outsider is unfortunately still an issue.

Just a few months ago, anti-Semitic slogans were daubed on the home of a couple in Tuam, Co Meath. The entrance to Herb Meyer's home was vandalised with the words "Go Home Jew", with a swastika also spray-painted on his driveway wall.

The culprits also sprayed swastika symbols and graffiti on the windows of the house in the attack. This vandalism is the third attack on Mr Meyer's property in recent months, with his car being targeted in two separate arson attacks.

But this is not something which has emerged in recent years. The curator of the Irish Jewish Museum is Raphael Siev, who was born in Leinster Road, Rathmines. Unfortunately for him, anti-Semitism was pretty strong in the Forties.

"It was part of life to be called 'a dirty Jew'," he said. "Another phrase often used to me was, 'Go back to where you came from.' Today attitudes are different, but there is an element still in Ireland that is anti-Israel and has strong overtones of anti-Semitic touches to it. But it goes without saying, though, that there has been a great improvement."

Siev, of Lithuanian and Polish descent, looks with regret at Ireland's great missed opportunity; he is referring to the fact that few Jewish people were allowed into Ireland during and after the Second World War because of the country having insufficient work for its own citizens, according to official explanations at the time.

He said, "The time for migration for Jewish people into Ireland was the Thirties when Hitler came to power. In 1938 and 1939, many Jewish people in Germany and Austria were seeking countries where they could migrate to. Large numbers of these people were professionals; they were the best brains of Europe. The opportunity was there for Ireland to take them in.

"There is a letter on file from the International Refugee Committee in Geneva to the Irish Government, saying they have a group of highly qualified engineers and if they were admitted to Ireland they would be an asset to the country.

"The letter was ignored; there was no reply on the files. They took no Jewish people in, a complete ban. We were very short-sighted. It was a real tragedy."

The truth is that Ireland refused numerous visa applications from European Jews in the Thirties, something for which John Bruton apologised when he was Taoiseach.

Asher Benson referred in his book Jewish Dublin: Portraits of Life by the Liffey, to the world of sport and how the Dublin Jewish community revolved around Edmondstown Golf Club in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains in Rathfarnham. (It still does.) In 1944 the Jewish golf club was created, due to the fact that Jewish people were prevented from becoming members of existing clubs.

Benson wrote, "Today the ethnic composition of the membership is no longer exclusively Jewish, for two reasons -- fewer Jewish golfers around, and also in the more liberal climate of the 21st century, the exclusion of non-Jewish players would be considered illegal due to equality laws."

Many people are of the mindset that few in the Jewish community are short of money and influence. It is true that many are doctors and dentists and hold down well-paid professions.

Siev's response to this is insightful. He said, "If Jews were so powerful, so wealthy, how is it that not one Jewish person could be saved? It was a lie. People created that figment in their mind but this was not true, they couldn't help save themselves.

"Many Jewish people qualified as doctors or dentists as very frequently they had to move on from place to place, so it was important they had an ability to earn a livelihood wherever they may be."

The Chief Rabbi of Ireland is Manchester-born Dr Yaakov Pearlman, who has maintained the high standards of the Irish Chief Rabbinate. He points out Jewish figures from the Irish community who have risen to acclaim.

"The Briscoe family, with Robert and his son Ben, were both Lord Mayors of Dublin; Gerald Goldberg, Lord Mayor of Cork; Harry Kernoff, internationally known artist; Gerald Davis, painter and performer; Sarah de Groot, actress; Maurice Elliman, who opened the first cinema in Ireland; Judge Hubert Wine, family court judge; Chief Rabbi Dr Isaac Halevy Herzog, first Chief Rabbi of Ireland and close friend of Eamon de Valera.

"Even at its lowest point, in the early 1990s, we had three TDs -- Fianna Fail's Ben Briscoe, Fine Gael's Alan Shatter, and Labour's Mervyn Taylor. For so few of us, we have accomplished a lot."

Siev is optimistic for the future of the Jewish community in Ireland, even if numbers are low.

"The decline has had an effect which has left its mark in every field," he said. "But with the coming of new technology it is likely that some young Jewish people will stay here and will develop an expertise in the IT world.

"There is inter-marriage all the time, and there is a trend of converting to Judaism. Today there is a different appreciation in the minds of young people, and many aren't holding on to their birth religion."

- ALISON O'RIORDAN