Ellen Odette Cuffe, Countess of Desart was a London-born Jewish woman who was best known as an Irish politician, company director, Gaelicist, and philanthropist in Ireland. She has been called '"the most important Jewish woman in Irish history".
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, Captain 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. These included Kilkenny Library, Aut Even Hospital, the Woollen Mills, Kilkenny Woodworkers, Kilkenny Theatre, the Tobacco Growers Association, Desart Hall, and Talbots Inch Suspension Bridge. 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. On 3 November 1910, Lady Desart formally opened the Carnegie Library for the very first time with a silver key supplied by P.T. Murphy, Jeweller, High St., Kilkenny.
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. She was appointed for 12 years in 1922 and served until her death in 1933. Desart's rise to the role of one of the first women ever to serve in a political role in Ireland is somewhat ironic given that she had previously actually opposed Women's suffrage: It was noted in her 1933 obituary that she had played an "energetic part" in opposing women having a place in politics, and believed that "women should not compete against men at work or play". Lady Desart, as president of the Women's Committee from 1908 to 1933, was directly involved in the rescue of approximately 300,000 women and children. She is buried along with her Anglo-Irish husband William Cuffe in Falmouth, Cornwall. The tombstone reads "They were together in their lives, and in their deaths they shall not be divided". She died on the 29th of June 1933 at Waterloo Rd, Dublin, aged 75. On her death her probate recorded a will of £1,500,000. All of this money was donated to the various charities that she was associated with. She is commemorated in the city of Kilkenny's Lady Desart pedestrian bridge, which was unveiled by Kilkenny City Borough Council in 2014.
