Political Career
He served in Dáil Éireann for 38 years and was elected 12 times in the Dublin South and from 1948, Dublin South–West constituencies - from the 6th Dáil to the 17th Dáil. He retired at the 1965 election being succeeded by his son, Ben who served for a further 37 years. In 1956, Briscoe became the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Dublin, although he was not the first Jewish Mayor in Ireland. That title belongs to William Annyas, who was elected Mayor of Youghal, County Cork in 1555. Briscoe served a one year term and was re-elected in 1961. After learning of a Jewish Lord Mayor from Dublin, Yogi Berra allegedly said, "Only in America!" His son Ben Briscoe was also a Fianna Fáil TD, and he too served as Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1988–1989.
His memoir,"For the Life of Me", was published in 1958.
The Emerald Isle immigration center in New York has devoted a special award in his name called the Robert Briscoe award. The group celebrates the close relationship between Jewish and Irish communities in New York and honours Jewish New Yorkers who have helped support immigration in the United States. The latest winner of the award was US Senator Chuck Schumer.
Read more about this topic: Robert Briscoe (politician)
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or career:
“... by and large, wife-changing and high office are not compatible. This inequity accounts for the many dull women in Washington and is the cause of much smug complacency on the distaff side of political marriages.”
—Barbara Howar (b. 1934)
“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)