The President, Mrs McAleese, and her husband, Dr Martin McAleese, were among the attendance at a funeral service for the delegate-general of Palestine in Ireland, Dr Yousef Allan, at the mosque of the Islamic Centre in Clonskeagh, Dublin, at the weekend.
Dr Allan was found dead from a suspected heart attack at his Dublin residence on January 17th. Several hundred members of the Muslim community attended the service, conducted by Imam Sheikh Hussein Halawa.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ms Liz O'Donnell, and the Secretary-General of the Department, Mr Padraic McKernan, were also present. The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mr Yasser Arafat, was represented by the delegate-general of Palestine to Britain, Mr Afif Safieh.
The mourners were led by Dr Allan's widow Jane, along with relatives who travelled from his home village of Halhoul on the West Bank.
There was strong representation from the diplomatic corps, including the US ambassador, Mr Michael Sullivan, the Chinese ambassador, Mrs Zhang Xiaokang, and the US deputy chief of mission, Mr Earle Scarlett, and his wife, Barbara, public affairs officer. The Indian, French, Dutch, Egyptian, Iranian, Portuguese, Belgian, Cypriot and Austrian embassies were also among those represented.
From the political sphere came the Green TD, Mr John Gormley, and Senators Michael Lanigan and David Norris. Many leading trade union figures also attended, including the SIPTU president, Mr Des Geraghty, the former president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Mr Phil Flynn, the former SIPTU president, Mr Jimmy Somers, the SIPTU equality officer, Ms Rosheen Callender, and Mr John Tierney of the National Centre for Partnership.
The Workers' Party was represented by its president, Mr Sean Garland. The Glasgow Labour MP, Mr George Galloway, and the former Labour Senator, Mr Jack Harte, also attended.
Dr Allan's remains were interred in the Muslim cemetery at Newcastle, outside Dublin.
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Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo
Beijing, 15 May: Three daughters of former Red Army Faction cadres who defected to North Korea after hijacking a Japan Airlines (JAL) plane in 1970 left Pyongyang on Tuesday [15 May] for Japan via China.
An Air Koryo plane with the three women aboard left Pyongyang in the morning for Beijing. But due to bad weather it changed course for Tianjin, southeast of the Chinese capital, according to officials at the Beijing bureau of All Nippon Airways (ANA).
The women - Ritsuko Konishi, 23, daughter of Takahiro Konishi, 56, Azumi Tanaka, 22, daughter of Yoshimi Tanaka, 52, and Asaka Tamiya, 22, daughter of Takamaro Tamiya, the deceased leader of the hijackers' group, plan to fly to Beijing and take an ANA flight from there to Narita airport, east of Tokyo, to enter Japan for the first time on Tuesday night.
The three women were born and raised in North Korea after their mothers moved there in the late 1970s to marry the hijackers.
Last October, they announced their wish to go to Japan. Applications for travel documents were filed in December at the Japanese embassy in Beijing, which issued travel documents for the women late April.
Nine people from the Red Army Faction, known as "Sekigunha" in Japan, hijacked the JAL plane with 138 passengers and crew members aboard from Tokyo en route to Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, and forced it to fly to Pyongyang.
Four of the nine hijackers still live in North Korea, three have died, and two have returned to Japan.
The Red Army Faction was a radical student group formed in 1969 and advocated global revolution through violence.
Some Red Army Faction members went on to form the Japanese Red Army guerrilla group, which gained international notoriety through a series of violent acts outside Japan in the 1970s.
Source: Kyodo News Service, Tokyo, in English 0301 gmt 15 May 01
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.
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Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo
Tokyo, 14 February: The Japanese embassy in Beijing has told five relatives of Red Army Faction members living in North Korea it will issue documents authorizing their trip to Japan if they submit a written oath that they will comply with identification checks at Beijing airport, sources close to the case said Tuesday [13 February].
The embassy also told them they would not be allowed to enter China during the transit, the sources said.
The five are two wives and three daughters of Red Army Faction members who hijacked a Japan Airlines (JAL) jet in 1970 and forced it to land in Pyongyang, where the hijackers were granted political asylum.
Yukio Yamanaka, secretary-general of the Kyuen Renraku Centre and proxy for the kin, told Kyodo News he plans to accept the embassy's proposal.
Even if the five agree to the proposal, it will take some time for the embassy to issue the travel documents, forcing them to wait until March or later to take the trip.
The five, meanwhile, lodged a protest Tuesday demanding the embassy issue the travel documents immediately, the sources said.
The five are Emiko Akagi, the 45-year-old wife of Shiro Akagi, 53; Kyoko Tanaka, the 44-year-old wife of Yoshimi Tanaka, 52; their 21-year-old daughter; the 23-year-old daughter of Takahiro Konishi, 56; and the 21-year-old daughter of deceased member Takamaro Tamiya. Emiko Akagi and Kyoko Tanaka face arrest on their arrival in Japan on suspicion of violating the Passport Law.
Japan and North Korea do not have diplomatic ties and their travel to Japan will have to be via a third country, such as China.
Known as Sekigunha in Japan, the Red Army Faction was formed in 1969 and advocated global revolution through armed violence. A splinter group, the Japanese Red Army, broke away two years later and gained international notoriety in the 1970s through a series of terrorist acts abroad.
Source: Kyodo News Service, Tokyo, in English 1517 gmt 13 Feb 01
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.