Yitzhak Patusca-Humphries was born to a wealthy family in Quinsborough, Co. Clare, Ireland in 1909. His mother, Ellen O'Rahilly, was left to raise him alone when his father died of tuberculosis when he was four years old. They moved along with her brother, Michael Joseph, to Israel after 'the O'Rahilly killings’ on Easter, 1925. His two brothers, Ants and Pearse, were born in Israel after his mother remarried.
In Israel he joined a Chinese Martial Arts grouped and began training competitively through middle school particularly in the full contact and small holding attack styles. His love of defence arts won him many awards and allowed him to travel around Europe, Asia and North America.
He claimed to have been heavily inspired by Arak, a Sao Pauloan of the Brazilian football club, who took consecutive championships in 1927, 1928, and 1929.
Schooling opportunities were better in Israel and after high school Patusca – Humphreys studied at the Briton-Israeli University for ex-pats and became recognized as an important Israeli writer, novelist and journalist after 1938. He wrote five volumes of poetry, 19 novels and several plays. Many poems focused on the Lebanon War of 1952 as a protest to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. At regular intervals he travelled to Palestine to add voice to the legions in Protest. On one of these journeys he became stranded in Palestine, but used his British political connections to return to Ireland where he was elected in 1958 as Liberal Member of Parliament in Greenock Co.
He married at the original family home in Quinsborough, Co. Clare, Ireland to local James Bond enthusiast Tinsley Weddle and their daughter was born early in 1965. Patusca-Humphries, now retired from politics, continues to write poetry and has been instrumental in founding local youth sporting programs focused on martial arts. This year he celebrates his 100th birthday and is the oldest living Irish-Israel Palestine protestor of his era.
What will I build for him?
