In The Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain recounts his impressions of the Holy Land during a 1867 visit: ‘…a silent, mournful expanse… A desolation is here; not even imagination can grace with pomp and action…’

Of course, visiting Israel today, you will encounter a land so drastically altered from Twain’s account as to be unrecognisable. Last week I travelled to the country for the wedding of a very dear friend. My personal chaos of trying to get there – multiple cancelled and rebooked flights – was surpassed by the wonderful, dynamic, and oft infuriating chaotic experience of Tel Aviv.

One single hour in this city would shatter the misconceptions that too many in the West hold about Israel. Indeed, so many of the visuals I bore witness to in Israel – the Yemenite filigree shop in Jaffa, the Black Orthodox man in Jerusalem, a Muslim woman wearing a hijab sitting next to an IDF soldier at a bus stop on the outskirts of Tel Aviv – prompted feelings of disheartenment within me about how the people of Israel have been so egregiously misunderstood in my own country of Ireland.