Mr Deasy halted, breathing hard and swallowing his breath.
—I just wanted to say, he said. Ireland, they say, has the honour of being the only country which never persecuted the jews. Do you know that? No. And do you know why?
He frowned sternly on the bright air.
—Why, sir? Stephen asked, beginning to smile.
—Because she never let them in, Mr Deasy said solemnly.
A coughball of laughter leaped from his throat dragging after it a rattling chain of phlegm. He turned back quickly, coughing, laughing, his lifted arms waving to the air.
—She never let them in, he cried again through his laughter as he stamped on gaitered feet over the gravel of the path. That’s why.
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From Ulysses published in 1922 with the dialog taking place in 1904.
Funny enough, there are some traditions that hold the man known as Ollamh Fodhla to actually be the Jewish prophet Jeremiah, and that along with certain artifacts from the kingdom of Judah (including Jacob’s pillar stone and possibly the Ark of the Covenant) he brought Tea-Tephi, one of Zedekiah’s daughters, who eventually became the wife of the high king.