Mr Brendan Scannell, a counsellor in the Anglo Irish of the Department of Foreign Affairs, has been appointed as Ireland's first Ambassador to Israel.
Mr was born in Tarbert, Co Kerry, in 1949.
Since joining the Department, he has served in London and Tanzania before going to the United States, where he was consul general in Boston and political counsellor in Washington.
He returned to Dublin in 1993 and worked on the International Fund for Ireland. He is married with three children.
