THE salmon has always been regarded very highly by the Irish in folklore, art and history. Remember Finn McCool and the Salmon of Knowledge in your schoolbooks?
Its lust possible that the salmon may have come to Ireland's aid again last Wednesday in Dublin when an Egyptian technical delegation was being entertained to lunch by the Live Shippers' Association.
The delegation, Prof Abdel Rahman Khater, Dr Adel Abdel Azim Fayed and Dr Aly Youssef Aly Youssel, arrived last Sunday as guests of the Department of Agriculture to look at Ireland's BSE controls.
Their visit had been arraaged following the imposition of a ban on the import of live cattle from Ireland to Egypt and this independent group had been asked to look at the Irish facilities.
Not surprisingly, Irish beef featured on every menu proffered to the important visitors, who were staying in Dublin's Berkeley Court Hotel, from the minute they set foot on Irish soil.
On Monday they visited the State laboratories in Abbotstown, Co Dublin, and at lunch they were offered, and ate, Irish beef. An Bord Bia, the food board, hosted lunch on Monday night and the main course was beef.
On Tuesday the delegation went to the Teagasc cattle research centre in Grange, Co Meath, and later to a local farm where once again beef featured on the menu.
Later that evening they were taken to the port in Waterford and back to Dublin where they were the guests of the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, in the Redwood Suite in Jurys Hotel.
And what was the main course? Yes, beef, the finest Irish beef available.
Wednesday nirn ng saw the delegation out at UCD where they visited the veterinary faculty before a series of meetings with the farm organisations in the Department of Agriculture.
Another lunch loomed, this time with the live shippers, who offered the visitors a choice of menu. We will not be insulted, they told their guests, if you don't want beef.
History will record that the Three Wise Men from the East ordered and ate salmon while their Irish hosts ate beef.
The Irish Times could not discover whether the dinner hosted by the Irish Meat Association, the organisation representing the meat factories, featured a beef course on Wednesday night.
The delegation left yesterday for Egypt. It will make its recommendation to the Egyptian government soon.
Indeed, they may well make a recommendation on Irish salmon too.