Plans are still going ahead for a trip to Liberia by the President, Mrs McAleese, next month despite an outbreak of rioting at the weekend which left at least eight people dead.
Gangs of AK-47-wielding youths, defying a government curfew, roamed the streets of the capital, Monrovia, where Mrs McAleese will visit.
Irish troops deployed as part of a 15,000 strong UN peacekeeping mission were forced to open fire over the heads of a gang of rioters attempting to lynch a man on a city street.
The Irish troops were put on a Chapter VII security alert, the highest alert for a peacekeeping mission, which allows soldiers to shoot civilians if they feel their safety is compromised.
A spokeswoman for the President confirmed Mrs McAleese would travel to Liberia with the Minister for Defence, Mr O'Dea, and the Defence Forces Chief of Staff, Lieut Gen Jim Sreenan. It will be the first overseas trip of Mrs McAleese's second term as President, which begins on November 11th.
"Obviously the security situation is a factor which we will have to keep an eye on and we'd take very seriously any advice we were given by the Defence Forces. But we haven't had any word yet [that the trip would be unsafe]," the spokeswoman said.
The Irish delegation will visit Irish troops based at Camp Clara, outside Monrovia. While plans will not be finalised until the end of next week, it is expected that the visit will take two or three days and will go ahead in mid- December.
The unrest in Monrovia over the weekend arose as a result of rare feuding between Christian and Muslim factions. It began on Thursday evening. At least eight people were killed, three of whom died when they were crushed by a UN vehicle which was trying to disperse a crowd.
More than 500 troops are based at Camp Clara. They were on standby to take over peacekeeping duties in Monrovia from the Nigerian United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) contingent.
The Irish troops patrolled the streets of Monrovia in a fleet of 14 armoured personnel carriers (APCs) from Thursday to Saturday night. Irish soldiers conducting patrols in a rural area of Liberia were flown to the capital on Friday to provide backup for their colleagues.
