British (Irish) Senator. Ellen Odette Bischoffsheim was born in London, the second daughter of Henry Louis Bischoffsheim, a wealthy banker, and his wife Clarisse (nee Bledermann.) She was educated at home. On the 29th. April 1881, at Christ Church in Down Street, Mayfair, she married the Fourth Earl of Desart. He died in 1898 and, although she spent most of the next decade and a half in England, in 1912, she moved to County Kilkenny in Ireland. In her entry in "Who's Who", she described her interests as: "The usual duties of a well-educated intelligent woman, conscientiously carried out; very strong anti-suffrage views; took an active part in England in combating the agitation for women's suffrage." Nonetheless, in 1922, she was nominated by President Cosgrave for membership of the Senate of the Irish Free State, and accepted the position, becoming the first Jewish woman to be a member of any Senate in the world. Another of her interests was the Irish language. She never learned to speak it herself, but funded schools to teach it, believing that there were parallels between the Gaelic and the Hebrew tongues, as both had become almost obsolete but had been revived. She wrote only two books: "A Guide for Secretaries, Public and Private", and "Style and Title", but contributed many articles for publication in periodicals. She died in Waterloo Road in Dublin, but was buried next to her husband in Falmouth, where her funeral service was conducted according to the Jewish rites.
British (Irish) Senator. Ellen Odette Bischoffsheim was born in London, the second daughter of Henry Louis Bischoffsheim, a wealthy banker, and his wife Clarisse (nee Bledermann.) She was educated at home. On the 29th. April 1881, at Christ Church in Down Street, Mayfair, she married the Fourth Earl of Desart. He died in 1898 and, although she spent most of the next decade and a half in England, in 1912, she moved to County Kilkenny in Ireland. In her entry in "Who's Who", she described her interests as: "The usual duties of a well-educated intelligent woman, conscientiously carried out; very strong anti-suffrage views; took an active part in England in combating the agitation for women's suffrage." Nonetheless, in 1922, she was nominated by President Cosgrave for membership of the Senate of the Irish Free State, and accepted the position, becoming the first Jewish woman to be a member of any Senate in the world. Another of her interests was the Irish language. She never learned to speak it herself, but funded schools to teach it, believing that there were parallels between the Gaelic and the Hebrew tongues, as both had become almost obsolete but had been revived. She wrote only two books: "A Guide for Secretaries, Public and Private", and "Style and Title", but contributed many articles for publication in periodicals. She died in Waterloo Road in Dublin, but was buried next to her husband in Falmouth, where her funeral service was conducted according to the Jewish rites.
Bio by: Iain MacFarlaine
Family Members
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