Kidnapped worker was about to pay visit home

SHARON COMMINS was due to return to Dublin for a holiday in the coming weeks after an 18-month stint as a project manager for Goal in Darfur – one of the charity’s toughest postings.

The 32-year-old, from Clontarf in Dublin, spent a number of years in Australia after completing a degree in communications in Dublin Institute of Technology and a master’s in international relations in Dublin City University. She also worked for a student website in Dublin.

Described by friends as warm, good-humoured and self-effacing, Ms Commins joined Goal four years ago as a press officer and administrator at the agency’s head office in Dublin.

She worked closely with its founder, John OShea, who described her yesterday as having a keen “news sense” and the capacity to absorb detail quickly.

“For the first time in Goal’s history, I had somebody with me who was thinking on the same wavelength in relation to media and PR.

“She had an extraordinary understanding of journalism and the media,” he said.

Mr O’Shea recalled it was “a shocking blow to my system when she proclaimed her desire to want to be at the coalface. I felt there was no more serious coalface than my office.”

In Darfur, her duties included the drafting of regular reports for Goal’s donors on its activities in the region, and friends say she has thrived in her work.

Ms Commins was due home shortly for a summer break, when her posting would be subject to a routine review.

“In her case I’d say she was sailing through it, but as a matter of course we would have a friendly chat, and if we felt the thing was too onerous, she would go to a less taxing location,” Mr O’Shea said.

“But those things were not being considered.

“She was happy, to our knowledge, in Sudan, and since it’s so hard to get quality people to work there, we would have encouraged her to enjoy her holiday and would look forward to another year of her working in Sudan,” Mr O’Shea added.