(From left: Bertie Ahern with Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat and Senator Mick Lanigan and Dr Yousef Allan in1996 in Dublin)

This was a part of long term relationship. Bertie Ahern was especially friendly, as was, in an earlier era, Brian Lenihan Sr. … And since then Ireland, which see’s parallels with our own historical situation and wants to support the underdog,

…But it’s a relationship which infuriates the Israelis, who pointed to the parallels between Arafat and the outlawed IRA. Some even think it has contributed to a certain brazenness in Irish-Israeli relations. For example, in 2010, Israeli agents flagrantly used forged Irish passports to travel to Dubai and bump off a Hamas agent, in a hotel room. The passports details were swiped and doctored from existing persons, but the Israelis used such ridiculous made-up Oirish names than many wondered were they sending a message. There was even a link to an empty house in Elgin Road [Ballsbridge] owned by the brother of former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds. It was in the heart of Dublin and right around from the Israeli Embassy itself!

Foul play is always suspected in this world of cloak and dagger.

In 2001, the then Palestinian representative in Dublin, Yousef Allan, died through monoxide poisoning in his house, also in Ballsbridge.

An inquest confirmed this, but many suspected he may have been deliberately poisoned. And his predecessor as Dublin representative, Ahmed Halimeh, died in very suspicious circumstances in 2012 in South Africa where he was the Palestinian Ambassador. Like Arafat, he was a former PLO man with many enemies, and investments. But who would have thought that the deadly world of Middle East vendettas would have such direct connections to Ireland.