McAleese to visit Bahrain

President Mary McAleese is due to pay an official visit to the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain next month.

The head of state has been invited to open the new headquarters of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) Medical University in the Middle Eastern state.

The €49m campus offers state-of-the-art training facilities for more than 500 full-time and part-time international medical students.

The Government approved the overseas visit by Mrs McAleese at this week’s Cabinet meeting.

The Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain visited Ireland in 2003 and paid a courtesy call on the president at her Aras an Uachtaráin residence.

Shaikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa was also given an honorary degree at the RCSI in Dublin. Last month Mrs McAleese paid a week-long transatlantic visit to California, Oregon and Arizona.