Minute from Frederick H. Boland to Seán MacBride (Dublin)

Minister.¹
You may like to see this report from Mr. Cochrane, the Honorary Consul General at Beyrouth,² about a visit which he recently made to Israel in the course of which he had conversations with officials of the Israeli Foreign Office.

You will see that the Israeli Government would like to have an honorary consular representative in Dublin but complain of the lack of suitable candidates.

I think that Mr. Cochrane is quite right about Father Hand. We have had letters from Father Hand which showed that Mr. Cochrane's diagnosis of his ideas with regard to the role which any Irish representation in Palestine should play is perfectly accurate. Probably, in present circumstances, it is better that we should have no representation in Israel at all. It would be difficult to reconcile the Vatican's desire that we should play a prominent role on the question of the Holy Places with our obvious interest in cultivating the goodwill of Zionist opinion throughout the world.