Ellen Cuffe, Countess of Desart

Who was Ellen Cuffe, Countess of Desart?

Ellen Odette Cuffe, Countess of Desart, née Bischoffsheim was an Irish politician, company director and philanthropist who has been called '"the most important Jewish woman in Irish history". She married William Cuffe, the 4th Earl of Desart in 1881. She was the daughter of Henri Louis Bischoffsheim, a wealthy Jewish banker of German origin.

After the death of her husband Lady Desart left the house in Cuffesgrange and moved to her home in Aut Even on the outskirts of Kilkenny city. She was interested in the Gaelic revival of the time, and became a member of the Gaelic League and was elected its president succeeding her brother-in-law, Capt. Otway Cuffe who was mayor of Kilkenny.

She commissioned the village of Talbot's Inch to be built by the architect William Alphonsus Scott. along with several other projects she and Capt. Cuffe developed together. In relation to her support of the Irish Language Lady Desart reminded the people that her own people, the Jews, had in their new Palestine colony revived a forgotten language and used it to re-unite the scattered remnants of their nation.