Ms Annetta Flanigan from Co Armagh was one of three UN hostages freed unharmed in Afghanistan today almost four weeks after her abduction at gunpoint on a Kabul street.
Ms Flanigan, Kosovan Ms Shqipe Hebibi and Filipino diplomat Mr Angelito Nayan were kidnapped on October 28th after helping run a presidential election won by US-backed incumbent Mr Hamid Karzai.
The three were "abandoned" at an unidentified location in Kabul early this morning, the Afghan interior minister said. He denied any deal had been done to free them.
UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva
The hostages were freed a day after US and Afghan forces mounted operations in downtown Kabul and to the north of the city in which one suspect was killed and more than a dozen detained, including a doctor working for the United Nations, but it was not clear if these led to their release.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Ahern welcomed Ms Flanigan's release, saying "I am absolutely delighted that Annetta and her colleagues have been released unharmed and are being reunited with their families.
"I know that my sense of relief is shared by all Irish people. I wish to pay tribute to the Secretary General of the United Nations and his staff, and to the Afghan government for their patient and tireless efforts which led to the successful release of Annetta and her co-workers."
The three were abducted after helping run a presidential election and threatened with death by a Taliban splinter faction, Jaish-e Muslimeen (Army of Muslims), which claimed to hold them.
The workers were snatched from their UN vehicle in a busy street just a few hundred metres from their office.
Work of UN and other foreign relief organisations, already greatly restricted in the south and east of the country by Islamic militant violence, was further hampered as foreign staff were largely confined to compounds for fear of more abductions.
"We are very, very happy and very relieved," said UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva. "I just saw them now right before talking to you," he said of the hostages. "They look good and they seem to be in good spirits."
Jaish leader Akbar Agha insisted Ms Flanigan and Mr Nayan were freed in return for 24 Taliban prisoners, while Ms Hebibi was freed after an appeal by Kosovan businessman Mr Behgjet Pacolli, a family friend.
Afghan authorities deny any ransom had been paid and insist no deal of any kind had been done.
UN secretary general Mr Kofi Annan paid tribute to the government's "crucial role" in freeing the hostages and said the UN would continue to work to boost staff security to enable it to fulfill its mandate in Afghanistan, a spokesman said.