Enda shows no sign of feeling heat on frontline

If Enda Kenny was feeling the heat he did not show it as he swirled into southern Lebanon — which is more than could be said for three of the soldiers in the honour guard waiting to be inspected who passed out in the sweltering 34C heat as the Taoiseach arrived.

The Russian-operated MI8 troop carrier helicopter Mr Kenny travelled in from Beirut blasted a storm of dust into the air, but it was the dust refusing to settle from the banking probe controversy back home which saw him take evasive action in the arid surroundings of the Israeli border danger zone.

The first visit to the peace keeping forces since Bertie Ahern in 1999 generated much excitement in the outpost of 181 Irish soldiers adjacent to the flash-point triangle encompassing the demarcation line of the Lebanon-Israeli war, the occupied Golan Heights and the refugee-strewn Syrian border.