Robert Emmet Briscoe was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in the Ranelagh neighborhood of South Dublin. He was named after the Irish Revolutionary, Robert Emmet.^[5] His brother Wolfe Tone Briscoe was named after Theobald Wolfe Tone, one of the leaders of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.^[2]

Briscoe's father, Abraham William Briscoe,^[6][7][8] was the Lithuanian Jewish proprietor of Lawlor Briscoe, which was a furniture factory on Ormond Quay which made, refurbished, imported, exported and sold furniture all over Ireland and abroad. Abraham Briscoe – known universally as Pappa – had arrived in Ireland penniless, and made his fortune as a salesman, first as a brush salesman, then as a merchant of imported tea. According to the memoirs of his son, Abraham Briscoe felt a very deep sense of gratitude for the social acceptance and opportunities for success that living in Ireland had granted to him. He accordingly raised his children to be Irish nationalists and supporters of the Home Rule agenda of the Irish Parliamentary Party. Abraham Briscoe also intensely disliked fellow Irish Jews who engaged in usury, and often encouraged the children of their South Dublin synagogue to play pranks on known moneylenders during services.^[9]

The original family name in Lithuania is believed to have been Cherrick or Chasen.^[10]

Abraham Briscoe married Ida Reddick,^[6][7][8] the daughter of a successful Lithuanian Jewish family in Frankfurt am Main, who had similarly emigrated from the Russian Empire to escape the anti-Semitic laws drastically limiting Jews from access to higher education and to life outside the Pale of Settlement, to live in the more socially accepting climate of Imperial Germany.^[9]

Robert and his wife Lily^[11] had seven children; only two of their sons, Ben and Joe, remained in Dublin. One of Robert Briscoe's daughters Miriam converted to the Catholic faith and became a Carmelite nun.^[12] Ben followed his father into politics, while Joe joined the Irish Army aged 15 (claiming to be 18) in 1945; he retired in 1993 with the rank of commandant.^[2]

Eamon Martin, former Chief of Staff of Fianna Éireann, was best man at Robert Briscoe's Jewish wedding. They had been close friends during the Irish War of Independence.

In what caused years of sharp political arguments with his father, Robert Briscoe rejected his Home Rule nationalist upbringing and instead embraced Irish republicanism. He was active with the Purchases Department, General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Sinn Féin during the Irish War of Independence and once broke his father heart by leaving the family's dinner when the IRA summoned him on the feast of Yom Kippur.

Briscoe also accompanied Éamon de Valera to the United States of America. He regularly spoke for the Sinn Féin cause at public meetings there and was adamant that being a "Hebrew" did not lessen his Irishness. Briscoe was also sent by Michael Collins to the Weimar Republic in 1919 to be the chief agent for procuring arms for the IRA.^[2][13] While in Germany in 1921 Briscoe purchased a small tug boat named Frieda to be used in smuggling guns and ammunition to Ireland. On 28 October 1921 the Frieda slipped out to sea with Charles McGuinness at the helm and a German crew with a cargo of 300 guns and 20,000 rounds of ammunition.^[14] Other sources cite this shipment as "the largest military shipment ever to reach the I.R.A." consisting of 1500 rifles, 2000 pistols and 1.7 million rounds of ammunition.^[15] On 2 November 1921 the Frieda successfully landed its cargo near Waterford harbor.

In June 1922 during the Irish Civil War, Briscoe was involved in an incident with fellow anti-treaty IRA members who attacked pro-treaty politician Darrell Figgis at his home. They entered the house and assaulted Darrell Figgis, cutting off his well-prized beard in the process. This traumatised Figgis' wife Millie, who had been under the impression Briscoe and his fellow assistants had been coming to kill Darrell.^[16] In November 1924 Millie would commit suicide, expressing in a suicide note that she was suffering from depression as a result of the 1922 attack.^[17][18] Darrell Figgis himself committed suicide in 1926.

In his biography, he recalls an incident of being recognised by a pro-Treaty opponent during the Civil War. Briscoe merely turned and walked away, confident that his enemy would not shoot him in the back.^[19]

Briscoe addressed political meetings and did fundraising work in the US from December 1922 to 1924.^[20] Bricoe later applied to the Irish government for a service pension under the Military Service Pensions Act, 1934 and was awarded 5 and 5/9 years service in 1939 at Grade D for his service with the IRA between 1 April 1920 and 30 September 1923.^[21]

Elected to the Dáil in the newly independent Ireland, Briscoe worked with Patrick Little to bring through a law limiting the interest that could be charged by moneylenders – and also, as he wrote, "made it illegal for a married woman to borrow money without the knowledge and consent of her husband, for these foolish ones are always the easiest prey of the moneylenders".^[22]

During the Second World War, Briscoe, at this time a member of Dáil Éireann, was placed under close surveillance by the Irish Directorate of Military Intelligence and the Garda Siochana Special Branch. His covert activities in support for Zionism and his lobbying on behalf of refugees were also considered potentially damaging to the interests of the Irish State by senior officials from the Department of Justice. Briscoe was also an admirer and friend of Ze'ev Jabotinsky and his campaign of resistance to antisemitism and his efforts to create a Jewish State.^[23][24] Between 1939 and 1940, Robert Briscoe worked closely with former British Army Col. John Henry Patterson, the former commanding officer of both the Zion Mule Corps and the Jewish Legion during the First World War.^[25] Together, they were involved in covert fund raising for the Irgun in the United States.^{[26][better source needed]} Jabotinsky, while head of Irgun, visited Dublin for secret instruction from Robert Briscoe in the use of guerrilla warfare tactics against the rule of the British Empire over the Mandate of Palestine.^[27] During the same period, Briscoe jokingly described himself as the "Chair of Subversive Activity against England".^[28] Briscoe also wished for Ireland to give asylum to Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, but did so discreetly in order not to be accused of compromising the neutrality policy of the Fianna Fáil government.^[29] Briscoe notably had ugly spats with Irish trade envoy to Germany and avowed anti-Semite Charles Bewley, who tried to thwart his effort of helping Jewish refugees gaining visas for Ireland during the war.

After the Second World War, Briscoe acted as a special advisor to Menachem Begin in the transformation of Irgun from a paramilitary organisation into the Herut political party (later Likud) in the new State of Israel. Briscoe had already been a key figure in the formation of the Fianna Fáil political party out of the Anti-treaty IRA post Irish independence but not before a bitter and fratricidal Civil War. Briscoe accordingly prompted Menachem Begin to make the transition immediately after the Altalena Affair, in order to prevent a similar civil war in Israel.^[30]

He served in Dáil Éireann for 38 years and was elected 12 times in the Dublin South and from 1948, Dublin South-West constituencies – from the 6th Dáil to the 17th Dáil. He retired at the 1965 election, being succeeded by his son, Ben who served for a further 37 years. In 1956, Briscoe became the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Dublin,^[31][32] although he was not the first Jewish Mayor in Ireland. That title belongs to William Annyas, who was elected Mayor of Youghal, County Cork in 1555.^[33] Briscoe was Dublin's first Jewish Lord Mayor, although Lewis Wormser Harris was elected Lord Mayor in 1876, but died before assuming office.^[34] Briscoe served a one-year term and was re-elected in 1961. After learning of a Jewish Lord Mayor from Dublin, Yogi Berra allegedly said, "Only in America!" His son Ben Briscoe was also a Fianna Fáil TD, and he too served as Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1988 to 1989.

His memoir, For the Life of Me, was published in 1958.

The Emerald Isle Immigration Center in New York has devoted a special award in his name called the Robert Briscoe award. The group celebrates the close relationship between Jewish and Irish communities in New York and honours Jewish New Yorkers who have helped support immigration in the United States. The 2016 Award Winners were Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and Deborah King, director of SEIU 1199's training and employment funds. Previous winners have included former New York Mayor Ed Koch, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer and U.S. Senator Charles Schumer.

• Robert Briscoe's role in the Irish War of Independence were dramatised in an episode of the American anthology drama television series Playhouse 90 broadcast in 1957 on CBS titled The Fabulous Irishman.^[35] In that episode, Briscoe was played by Art Carney while David Opatoshu played Briscoe's father (and was credited as "Briscoe's Father" instead of "Abraham Briscoe" which was his actual father's name).^[35] The Fabulous Irishman, like most programs at the time, was shown live.^[36] Art Carney was praised for his performance as Robert Briscoe in a review was published in The New York Times^[36] and another review that also praised Carney's acting was published in The Boston Globe.^[37]

• Emerald Isle Immigration center – Annual Briscoe Awards