THOSE WHO KNOW something about Irish history and the way in which grievances of long ago continue to fuel present sectarian hates will see similarities with what is happening today to the Palestinians, in particular in the manner the siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem has ended.

Four hundred years ago, two Irish Catholic noblemen, together with more than ninety of their family and followers, were forced to flee into exile in France after their rising against the colonizing English had failed. Thousands more Irish Catholics fled into exile between 1690 and 1730, either because their lives were physically at risk from English soldiers and Scottish settlers, or simply because they could not endure any more to be strangers and outcasts in their own land.

The first flight is called that of the Earls, the second that of the Wild Geese. The memory of both continues to exert a powerful sway on Irish imaginations. Their brightest and best were forced into exile, those who remained were disposed, their lands given over to settlers unless they abandoned their faith, their culture, everything that made them themselves.

The similarities with the Palestinians of today are compelling: A people dispossessed by alien settlers, under the heel of a superior military force, terrorized and intimidated, made to feel strangers in their own land.

That similarity is nowhere more striking than in the fate imposed on the Palestinian resistance fighters forced to take shelter in Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity. The departure of the thirteen Palestinians exiled under the deal which ended the siege, initially to Cyprus and then who knows where, is a modern, Palestinian version of the Flight of the Earls, the Flight of the Palestinian Wild Geese. These are Palestine’s brightest and best, forced into exile by a settler power with its brutal, superior military force.

But those who see this exile as a defeat for the fighters themselves and for the Palestinian people should think again. It is not. It is far more a defeat for Israel. It was unable to destroy the fighters — its initial aim — because of where they had decided to hole up: In one of Christianity’s most important shrines. The Israeli Army dared not attack it.

If it had, Israel would have been condemned forever in the West as barbarian and vile. It had to let them go. Ariel Sharon, who lives and breathes brutality and who sells himself to the Israeli public as the Hammer of the Palestinians, could not even achieve his other aim — their trial in Israeli courts. The Israeli propaganda machine is now busy trying to dress the deal up as a victory, but neither the Israeli public nor anyone else is going to believe it.

The truth is that exile was a face-saving device to cover the fact that the Israelis had no means of winning this part- military, part-diplomatic, stand-off. The brutish Sharon had to lay his hammer aside and accept it.

There is another part to the Irish analogy that needs to be remembered. Irish fighters and leaders were forced into exile those hundreds of years ago, unable to withstand the occupier’s superior military power — but the Irish eventually won their freedom. And so will the Palestinians.

Nor does exile end resistance. It only reinforces resentment among those who are left behind. The exiles become heroes — for generations to come — as happened in Ireland. Meanwhile, new freedom fighters are created. It will be the same for the Palestinians. Today’s exiles are tomorrow’s heroes, after whom streets and squares will be named.