Hello my name is Daniel Michael Luke O’Bernstein and I have brother called Patrick Michael Vincent O’Bernstein. My two sisters Mary and Bernadette are by marriage no longer a part of this nearly 200 year old story. At school the kids called us Yids but my family have not been Yiddish for over five generations I’m a catholic and proud of it. So now I can say Bog off to those kids and their parents. The names O’Bernstein Daniel O’Bernstein You might be wondering how it is that I could claim to be catholic and Irish with a surname like mine? Is O’Bernstein a real name? Yes it is! Who would make up a name like that?
We, The O’Bernstein’s have been explaining the origins of their name for over five different generations I’ll try not to swear when I explain but it’s hard for a working class Dublin boy, not to use, the odd swear word now and then. It was never easy being Danny, The Yid, O’Bernstein and it wasn’t easy for my father or his father before him or his father and so on and so on.
It was all the fault of the very first O’Bernstein, he was born Jacob Bernstein in Germany, don’t ask me when. It was just a long time ago. He met his future wife just outside Wicklow while on a pilgrimage to Ireland. The year we’ve been told was 1840. Jacob’s rabbi a man with a strange sense of humour he informed him, as a joke during a drinking session, that St Patrick was actually Jewish and he was buried in an unmarked grave in Glendalough and it was Jacob’s duty, as a good Jewish man, to find this grave and say Kaddish over it. The silly bugger believed him; Jacob packed his bags the next day and left. It wasn’t until the Sabbath that the truth emerged. The Rabbi, in his meek defense explained that they were both very drunk when it happened. Nonetheless Jacob’s parents were not best amused. As far as we know, the elders took no further action against the Rabbi. What was done was done, it was the will of God and who are we to question our destiny?
Young Jacob arrived in Dublin he couldn’t speak a word of English and certainly no Irish. He had no money, no food just the clothes on his back. Jacob did however have a good pair of boots, which was remarkable in the Dublin streets of those days. It was only local priest, in those days that owned a decent pair of boots. Jacob quickly realising the predicament he was in and hungry decided to sell his boots for a roof over his head and food in his belly. He found work for food, at a local farm and he also met his future wife Orla. After six months Jacob was able to speak English moderately well this new found talent enabled him to persuade the local farmer, to give him a small wage, back in Germany Jacob was a tailor and a reasonable shoe maker. The meager amount that the farmer gave him was just enough to buy cloth and leather. In his spare time, what little he had, he made clothes for the locals. His designs were different to that of the local shops and women normally made all their own clothes for themselves and their families but the locals bought some items of clothing and well made shoes from Jacob
Jacob was a hard worker and a diligent farmer he’d work all day and make clothes at night and he always found time to talk to the lovely Orla. In Germany Jacob had heard rumours of a potato blight sweeping Europe, that was two years before in 1838 and he recognised the species of potato being grown by the farmer as a carrier. This species of potato was called the Irish Lumper it was a potato that would grow anywhere in any soil and in abundance. Jacob had to persuade his future father in law to plant a different type of potato; it was going to be a hard sell. The farmers name isn’t mentioned in the records or in Jacob’s journals so I can’t tell you his name He was just Orla’s father and the old farmer that’s all we were told
Orla’s father listened to Jacob he wasn’t sure what to make of this story about a fungus that just attacked Irish Lumper’s but he wasn’t going to call a man a liar. A deal was struck and a bargain made, if Jacob wanted to take charge of the running of the farm then he’d have to marry Orla and become a son in law The old farmer didn’t realise that Jacob and Orla had been seeing each other biblically for quite some time. Jacob reluctantly for the sake of Orla’s honour agreed to these terms. He did want to marry Orla but he could never pluck up the courage to ask her father for her hand. The God’s smiled on Jacob that day and Orla was finally going to be his Bashert or Hebrew Soul mate
Jacob converted to Catholicism because he knew that this course of true love he had chosen would mean that his children could not be a part of the Jewish communion, only a Jewish mother can bear a Jewish child. The conversion was done in secret. Jacob was baptised at the farm due to the local British army contingent still frowning a little on the Catholic faith. Jacob also changed his name to O’Bernstein. It was his right as the son of a Bernstein and the leader of the Irish Bernstein family and his son’s were going to be proud Irishmen. Orla decided however that she’d rather be known as Mrs. O’B
The marriage by Irish standards was a quiet affair only a few dozen close friends and all the family Jacob was allowed to move into the main house. The main house wasn’t such a big step up from the stable just larger with more rooms at least in the house he didn’t have to sleep with the livestock in winter. The old farmer gave up the large bedroom and Mr. and Mrs. O’Bernstein moved in. Orla’s old room became her father’s dwelling place. Jacob was now manager but not the owner the title deeds of the farm belonged to His Highness the Duke of Somewhere, based in England but being the manager meant that he could change things and increase efficiency. Jacob had seen how the farms were worked in Germany and he felt sure that German farming methods would do wonders for this little land holding. They had a few acres of land that could be cultivated with crops other than potatoes. Jacob bought new seeds from England and he started planting potato seeds that he had ordered from Idaho in America.
This was a strong hardy good crop potato, it wasn’t as big as the Lumper but as a crop it was resilient Jacob also planted turnips and Swedes in one the out fields much to the dismay of his father in law. The older more experienced farmer didn’t believe that the locals would buy this new produce. Jacob also introduced double deck farming for herbs and the onion crop. These crops didn’t need so much sunlight to thrive so he designed planting beds that could be set on top of each other and then changed over from top to bottom. The pods were heavy but they only had to be changed over, four times a year and these new growing pods meant that they had an extra field to plant crops in.
By 1844 the farm produced twice as much food as any of the surrounding farms; the food they didn’t sell was stored up for the winter or used as animal feed. Jacob also bought more livestock and leased another field for their ever expanding successful farm business. The following year 1845 there came the second Great famine The Irish potato famine Jacob had predicted this blight coming he prayed that he was wrong and that the plight wouldn’t come to Ireland, but it did. There were many times on a Sunday after Church that he had warned the other farmers but they didn’t want to listen to or take advice from a newcomer German farmer
The O’Bernstein farm was clear of all disease and while their farm flourished many of the surrounding farms crops failed, as the potato blight took hold. After just eight weeks the local area was in desperation the only source of edible food in the area was The O’Bernstein farm. Everyone came to the farm at first demanding a share of the crop and then finally just begging for food.
The local farmers and town’s people had no money or possessions left to pay the Landlords, the savings that they had were used up in rents. Before the famine the local farmers could pay their rent in produce and or money but now they had neither. Jacob O’Bernstein could not let his neighbours starve or get evicted; he had seen injustices in Europe against Jews who had money these poor hard working tenants had no means to pay him or the landlords. To every problem there is a solution so Jacob devised a credit system that would mean he could give his neighbours what they needed for no money and he would still make a profit. He called this system the O’Bernstein favour account. Everybody who came but to buy produce was given a piece of paper to sign and given a copy as proof of purchase. The actual cost to them was free goods and services to the O’Bernstein farm. This meant free labour around the farm in every shop and bar in Wicklow O’Bernstein was no good because everything was free, hardly anyone in the area could read or write but the local priest could if there was a problem. This sounds like an agreement with the devil but the reality was that Jacob O’Bernstein saved almost every farm, shop and bar in the area. No one starved and no one died, a few went to America but those that stayed survived
Jacob gave out strict rations to everyone who came by, his generosity really only extended to the local area but the hunger had spread throughout Ireland. Some traveling families did come by begging for food and Jacob did have to turn them all away, but never without a piece of bread and a couple of vegetables, he did what he could but they were hard times The Famine lasted seven years and every long year should have been the last. Jacob made a lot of friends over those years and a few enemies. There were a few landlords that wanted to clear their lands for grazing their plans were thwarted by Jacobs’s interventions and many bailiffs went home empty handed. There was more than one retired British Army officer that wanted to buy some cheap land in Ireland. The name O’Bernstein was to be long remembered by some very influential people in Britain.
Orla bore Jacob four children three girls and a boy and by some accident of genetics his son also had three girls and a boy. In fact our father was the only Bernstein man to have two sons I wonder sometimes if Patrick and I have the same father, Dad was away a lot and we were always having things done around the house by different workmen and Ma was always a friendly woman. I have my three children Enja, Kylie and Roan but they have their mother’s surname Costello and i think a woman would have to be mad to marry Patrick. We have to face the truth Patrick and I are the last of The O’Bernstein’s the name dies with us. But we’re not dead yet so the story continues
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