Come Here To Me!

A look at the Dublin story of ‘Joe Edelstein’s Alarm’ in Little Jerusalem.

Back in September, I paid a visit to the Irish Jewish Museum in Portobello, a pretty incredible gem covering everyone from the fictional (Leopold, I’m talking to you…) to the very real Jewish characters in Dublin history.

One of the characters touched upon was Joe Edelstein. Joe’s name would have been very well-known in the area that became Dublin’s ‘Little Jerusalem’. He was a businessman and writer of some importance in the Jewish part of the city. The Irish Times of September 11 1908 noted for example that he spoke at a meeting of the Judaeo-Irish Home Rule Association at the Mansion House in Dublin and proposed that “….this great meeting of Jews resolve to support such measures as will tend to secure for the people of Ireland a full grant of self-government.”

Edelstein wrote a most controversial work, The Money Lender, which was not well received in the Jewish community of the capital. A copy of it can be seen in the museum today. It was felt by some that the book re-inforced negative stereotypes about the community. It was published in 1908. Despite objections to the work, Joe remained an influential figure in the Jewish community, and newspaper archives show he continued to speak at many public events, continuing to champion the Home Rule movement.

Sadly, Edelstein, once an influential figure in his community, was to fall on hard times and turn to drink. The Irish Independent of November 11, 1939 noted that he was fined a sum of 40s for an offence arising out of being drunk. On one occasion Edelstein was fined by damaging works in the National Library.

Manus O’Riordan has done some excellent research on the Jewish community in Dublin, and noted that:

Edelstein was a man with a serious drink problem, and was subject to frequent psychiatric breakdowns, with resulting periods of hospitalisation. In fact, one such commitment to the Richmond mental hospital for a whole nine months stretch stemmed from the scandal of his 1911 conviction for the crime of indecent assault….

… Edelstein lived on New Street, the central venue for James Connolly’s outdoor public meetings during his 1902 Wood Quay election campaign, and a straight continuation of Clanbrassil Street, the principal thoroughfare of Dublin’s “Little Jerusalem”.

It was said that if Edelstein was unable to find a bed for the night, he would use the fire alarm to get the attention of the fire services. For the offence of improper use of the alarm, Joe would thus spend a night in a cell. The story goes that Joe would be dropped off to the police station by the fire services, and responding to such calls in ‘Little Jerusalem’ was refered to among firemen as “Joe Edelstein’s alarm”.

I’d seen a 1925 newspaper report which noted that Edelstein was charged for breaking a fire alarm on Camden Street. Yet the great find below really proves that “answering Joe’s alarm” was a part of the job of Dublin firefighters at one time.

Below is a scanned page from the Dublin Corporation Reports for 1923. It’s from Volume 1 of the Dublin Fire Brigade Annual Report.

It notes that “of the 90 false alarms it has been ascertained that 61 were given maliciously.” This figure is said to have been “a deplorable record”.

The report goes on to mention Joe Edelstein specifically and by name:

On December 7th Joseph Edelstein was fined 20s or fourteen days for giving a false alarm. On December 8th, for giving another malicious alarm, he was fined 40s. or one month hard labour, and ordered to find bail in the sum of £10 to keep the peace for twelve months, or in default, an additional months imprisonment.

So there you go. ‘Joe Edelstein’s Alarm’ was a real one. A complex Dublin character no doubt, more can be learned on Edelstein from visiting the excellent Irish Jewish Museum.