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heritage · Thursday 20 August 2026 · 11:00am 
Cork's Jewish Past and Present - Talk at Cork Public Museum
At Cork Public Museum · Fitzgerald Park, Mardyke, Cork City
At Cork Public Museum · Fitzgerald Park, Mardyke, Cork City
Cork has a Jewish history that most visitors never hear about, and this free talk at Cork Public Museum is a rare chance to learn it from someone who has spent years recovering it. Ruti Lachs - storyteller, musician, and researcher - has interviewed around 50 descendants of Cork’s former Jewish community, gathered their family stories, and shaped them into something compelling and personal. She brings klezmer music and Yiddish song into her talks, so this is not a dry lecture but a living account of people who arrived in Cork from Lithuania in the 1880s and built a community here over several generations. Anyone with an interest in Irish social history, emigrant experience, or simply good storytelling will get a lot from the hour.
Ruti Lachs has been researching Cork’s Jewish community since 2017, making documentaries and conducting original interviews with descendants now living as far away as Israel and the United States. Her talks draw on that personal archive. The community she explores settled mostly in the Albert Road area, a quarter that became known locally as Jewtown - a cluster of terraced streets where Lithuanian Jews who had fled Tsarist persecution built their lives as pedlars, traders, and neighbours. At its peak in the early 20th century the community numbered around 500 people. By the 1980s, through emigration and assimilation, only a handful remained. Ruti’s work keeps their stories alive.
The talk takes place at Cork Public Museum, which itself holds material on Cork’s Jewish history alongside the wider story of the city. The Georgian building in Fitzgerald Park dates to 1845 and has been a museum since 1910, with collections covering Bronze Age tools, the city’s medieval archaeology, civic regalia, and temporary exhibitions on communities often overlooked in the official record. This is an appropriate setting for a talk like this.
The event is part of National Heritage Week 2026, which runs 15-23 August. Places are limited and pre-booking is recommended.
Cork Public Museum is in Fitzgerald Park on the Mardyke, about a 15-minute walk west of Cork city centre along the south bank of the River Lee. From Kent Station, the walk takes around 20 minutes or a short taxi ride. Several Bus Eireann and Cork City routes serve the Mardyke area. If you are driving, street parking is available along the Mardyke and surrounding roads, though it fills quickly on weekday mornings. Fitzgerald Park itself is pedestrian-only, so allow a few minutes to walk in from the nearest gate.
Fitzgerald Park is pleasant to walk before or after the talk, and the museum itself is worth a slow look around while you are there - admission is always free. There is more to see in Cork and across Co. Cork.
Heading to Cork Public Museum in Cork? Cork has plenty more to see. Read the Cork area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.