Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has been taking part in briefings with senior Israeli and Palestinian figures as part of fresh attempts to engage hardliners on both sides in peace talks.

Mr Ahern, a member of the board at the Edward Kennedy Institute for Conflict Intervention at Maynooth University, met with Israeli and Palestinian government ministers and key local leaders in recent days.

In briefings, he is understood to have said that while the political context in the Middle East and Northern Ireland is very different, key lessons could be learned from the Irish peace process.

Mr Ahern is also believed to have said there was a need to take risks, address all issues of concern and keep lines of communication open.

He was accompanied by Peter Cassells, director of the Kennedy Institute.

Mr Cassells said that while no new formal peace process initiatives are planned in the Middle East at this stage, the institute is working to facilitate dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.

“We’re doing this through supporting practitioners and policy-makers to build their capacity for reflective approaches to conflict and conflict intervention,” he said.

“We are also generating new knowledge and re-framing existing knowledge to support communities [to] transcend predictable patterns of conflict.”

Meetings

The visit to Israel included meetings with members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, as well as academics and religious leaders.

In Palestine, the former taoiseach was involved in roundtable meetings with senior political figures, including a brefing with Dr Sabri Saidam, the Palestinian minister of education.