Aoife safely at home in Ashbourne

Ashbourne's Aoife McManus is safely at home in Ashbourne tonight having been has been evacuated from Kabul last week.

Her father, Ray MacManais said this evening that along with his wife Jenny and son, Colm, he was ecstatic that she was home "and sleeping in her own bed."

He added they were heartbroken for those still left behind in Kabul.

Aoife returned home to Ashbourne and Ireland today. She was one of three Irish citizens who managed to get on a flight to Islamabad in Pakistan on Thursday.

The elite army Rangers have flown out to Kabul to assist in securing the return home of a further 36 Irish citizens from the strife torn country.

Last week, Aoife spoke of her perilous journey to Kabul airport with a “Taliban escort.”

Aoife, from Fleenstown, Ashbourne ,was co-ordinator of a major education programme run by an international charity and had been working in Afghanistan for the past two years.