Francis Martin O'Donnell - Other Interests

Other Interests

The initiative to create an Irish-Arab Society was proposed by O’Donnell in November 1968, and taken up by a group of Irish and Arab friends. It was the principal advocate of the Palestinian cause in Ireland during the 1970s and the 1980s. It played a key advisory and facilitative role in promoting Irish-Arab trade and cultural links, and with its support diplomatic relations were established with 12 states in the Middle East and North Africa between 1974 and 1976.

At the invitation of the Irish Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) and Foreign Minister in early 1995, he contributed towards the first White Paper on Irish Foreign Policy (see ). His monograph is lodged in the National Archives of Ireland, and acknowledged in the published White Paper (1996). He is member of the Institute of International and European Affairs (see ). His analysis of the historical evolution of the law affecting incorporeal hereditaments as elements of intangible cultural heritage (see ) has also been acknowledged by the Irish Law Reform Commission during its consideration of the repeal of 150 statutes going back to 1285 (see ). Since 2006, the consequent Bill on Land Reform & Conveyancing has progressed in the Oireachtas, and been adopted into law, as the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act, Number 27 of 2009.