Peace prize for murdered Margaret Hassan

Murdered Irish-born aid worker Margaret Hassan was tonight posthumously awarded the Tipperary International Peace Prize.

Mrs Hassan was abducted in Baghdad on October 19 but her body has not been found despite pleas to her captors by her family and the Irish and British governments.

The Tipperary Peace Convention tonight said it had decided to honour the CARE International official “who paid the ultimate price for her dedication to the poor and vulnerable in Iraq“.

Previous recipients of the annual Tipperary award include Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Clinton and Bob Geldof.

The award will be presented to relatives of 59-year-old Mrs Hassan during the Tipperary International Festival of Peace in Co Tipperary in April.

A video showing the apparent murder of Mrs Hassan was shown on Arab TV in November and her family accepted that it was probably her.

More than 1,000 local people later attended an ecumenical service in Kenmare Co Kerry where Mrs Hassan’s mother was born and where her sister Geraldine lives.

Mrs Hassan, who held dual Irish and British citizenship, lived in Iraq since the 1970s with her Iraqi husband, Tahseen.

During her captivity, premiers Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern issued direct pleas for her release and a special debate on the issue was held in the Dáil.

A Tipperary Peace Convention statement added tonight: “The Peace Convention salutes the extraordinary life of a Dublin-born aid worker.

“She showed extraordinary courage, tenacity and commitment in her concern for those who were living in the most difficult of circumstances.”

The Tipperary Peace Convention was founded in 1983 with the aim of promoting peace and rewarding people who make a noteworthy contribution to peace-related issues.