| Biography | Ellen Odette Cuffe, Countess of Desart, née Bischoffsheim (1 September 1857 29 June 1933) was an Irish politician and company director. She married William Cuffe (18451898), the 4th Earl of Desart in 1881. She was the daughter of Henri Louis Bischoffsheim, a wealthy Jewish banker of German origin.
Lady Desart 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. 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.
She was appointed to the Irish Free State Seanad Éireann as an independent member in December 1922 by the President of the Executive Council. She was one of four women elected or appointed to the first Seanad in 1922. She was the first Jew to serve as a Senator in Ireland.[2] She was appointed for 12 years in 1922 and served until her death in 1933 |