Hm…perhaps a little divine intervention is on the way…

It was established in The Devil’s Disciple that Sam and Dann Briscoe are Jewish, so naturally, they would not be at the Mass. There were never many Jews in Ireland (JCR-UK only records six cities that ever had a Jewish community in them), but they have indeed been present in Ireland for a long time.  Records show only two synagogues that would have been open in 1936 anywhere near Ballinabricky, and those are not too near (one in Limerick and one in Cork — each with fairly constant membership of only 25-35 people over this period).

The Clancy Brother’s had a song, Moses-Ri-Tooril-I-Ay, which makes reference to “Briscoe,”  likely  reference to Ben Briscoe (although it could have been Robert), a Jewish politician in Ireland.  It was because of Ben Briscoe that I chose Sam and Dann’s surname.

Follow this story from the beginning here.