Those responsible for the murder of Mr Tony Higgins, the Galway engineer who was shot dead at his office in Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh, earlier this month, will be pursued and brought to justice.
That was the promise given to Mr Higgins's family by the Saudi deputy ambassador to Ireland, who addressed mourners at the murdered man's funeral in Galway yesterday.
Mr Alowedi did not refer to al-Qaeda, which has admitted responsibility for Mr Higgins's murder on August 3rd, but said that "the government of Saudi Arabia will track down whoever stands behind this crime and punish them ".
On behalf of the Saudi government, the deputy ambassador extended sympathy to Mr Higgins's wife, Joan, his daughters, Siobhán and Nicole, and his family and friends.
Mr Alowedi read prayers from the Koran in Arabic and English and spoke of the deep respect that was due to Mr Higgins from the people of Saudi Arabia.
"But terrorism is blind and in that darkness they cannot see rays of light. Many people in Saudi will miss you as your family do," he added.
The Bishop of Galway, Dr James McLoughlin, was among the concelebrants at the Church of the Sacred Heart for Mr Higgins's funeral Mass, where the congregation heard parish priest Canon Malachy Hallinan speak of Mr Higgins's deep faith and of the deceased man's three great loves.
"The first love was for Joan, Siobhán and Nicole, and the family at home, the second was for the house of God no matter where in the world that happened to be and the third was the love for the people he worked with," Canon Hallinan said.
Mr Higgins met his wife in England and, despite being based in the Middle East, he spent three months of every year at home in Galway with her and their two daughters.
He loved Mrs Higgins dearly and phoned her every day, said Canon Hallinan, who described Mr Higgins as "a man of prayer" who "lived and openly lived what he believed in".
The Mass was followed by a reading of a poem written by the deceased man's sister, poet Rita Ann Higgins.
In No Chance Encounter, Ms Higgins described how there was now "no hope of a serendipitous encounter with you in Shop Street or the Eyre Square Centre/ yourself and Joan strolling with ease through the town you loved.
"You were as much at home on the streets of Galway/as you were in the desert among the Bedouin", she said, paying him the tribute that he was "always fearless among friends . . . /You were fearless long before this".
Mr Higgins' remains were buried in Rahoon Cemetery close to his family home in Cruacháin Park.