President Mary McAleese will visit Irish troops in Lebanon this weekend on her last official trip abroad.
Minister for Justice Alan Shatter will accompany the President to Camp Shamrock, where she will present medals to 72 peacekeepers on their first overseas mission.
Mrs McAleese, the Supreme Commander of the Irish Defence Forces, was the first head of State to visit troops abroad. She went to Lebanon in December 1998, in Kosovo and Bosnia in 2000 and Liberia in 2004.
On Friday, she will arrive at the presidential palace in Beirut to meet the president of Lebanon, Michel Sleiman.
The following morning she will visit Camp Shamrock in Tibnin where she will be briefed on the United Nations-mandated operation in the Middle East.
The President will meet some of the 440 Irish personnel in the 104th Infantry Battalion UNIFIL, plant a tree in honour of her visit and present medals to some of the youngest soldiers on the mission.
She will also visit a nearby orphanage supported by Irish personnel fundraising efforts and where Irish soldiers teach English.
The President will then lay a wreath at the Irish UNIFIL memorial in Tibnin in honour of 47 Irish soldiers who have lost their lives while on peacekeeping duties in the country.
On Sunday, she will meet members of the Irish community at a reception hosted by the Irish ambassador to Lebanon before she returns to Dublin.
Irish troops were first sent to Lebanon as observers in 1958, with the first battalion sent as part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in 1978 formed after Israeli troops occupied the region.
The main Defence Forces battalion was withdrawn in 2001 following 23 years of service but was deployed again in 2006 for 12 months.
The current deployment is initially for 12 months, subject to renewal, and Ireland’s participation will not exceed a maximum of three to four years.
The Irish area of operations measures some 140km sq (87 miles sq) extending in the Hezbollah-controlled country from Tibnin to the border with Israel.
Their role involves the protection of civilians, extensive mobile patrolling throughout the Irish area of operations, ground holding and monitoring along the blue line.
PA