The Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs in their prayer shawls at Lhasa Airport, Tibet, last month. From left are Michael Creed, Austin Deasy, Pascal Mooney, David Andrews, Breda O'Kennedy, Michael O'Kennedy, Brian Cahalan, secretary, and Michael D. Higgins. Out of shot is our Ambassador to China, Declan Connolly. Half the delegation - Deasy, Andrews and O'Kennedy - is retiring at the next election so their elder-statesman status was much venerated in the respectful east. The chairman of the committee, Des O'Malley, didn't travel because of the lack of oxygen at the high levels in which they were circulating. Indeed, all were instructed by their hosts in the three nos - no cigarettes, no drink and no rushing about.
This created more difficulty for some members than for others, according to a source, but all were relieved to find oxygen bags and tubes in their bedrooms in the Himalayas.
The group, which was away for eight days, visited China and Tibet and they tell Quidnunc they continually raised the issue of human rights with their hosts, the foreign affairs committee of the National People's Congress.