This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Lawrence William White. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Born: 24 March 1969, Ireland
Died: 22 February 1993
Country most active: Somalia
Also known as: NA
Place, Valerie (1969–93), nurse and overseas aid worker, was born 24 March 1969 at 20 St Brendan’s Crescent, Walkinstown, Dublin, one of four daughters and three sons of Patrick Place, coachbuilder, of that address, and Margaret Place (née Byrne). Educated at St Paul’s secondary school, Greenhills, she trained as a nurse at St James’s hospital, Dublin (1987–90), and worked for a time in programmes for the disabled with CASA (Caring and Sharing Association). In September 1992 she went to Somalia as a volunteer worker on a two-year contract with the Irish overseas aid agency Concern, which had been active in the east African country since May 1992 as part of an emergency international response to conditions of impending famine amid an intractable civil war. One of seventy Irish aid workers active in seventeen locations in Somalia, Place supervised both a feeding station catering for 2,500 children in the capital, Mogadishu, and an adjoining school opened in December 1992. With relief efforts severely hampered by the disturbed state of the country and the widespread looting of relief supplies – often by the local guards that the relief agencies were obliged to employ – the United Nations security council, after months of futile initiatives, authorised deployment of a ‘unified task force’ of 30,000 troops, largely American, to establish a secure environment for the distribution of humanitarian relief (December 1992). Meeting with little initial resistance, the force secured air and sea ports and supplies depots, but failed to prevent attacks by armed bands on aid convoys. On 22 February 1993 Place, while travelling with a party that included the Concern chief executive, Rev. Aengus Finucane, to attend the opening of a school for 1,200 children in Wanlewein, was fatally wounded when gunmen ambushed her car, the third and last in the convoy, at Afgoi, 30 km west of Mogadishu. Taken by US Air Force helicopter to a military hospital in Mogadishu, she died within minutes of arrival. Her funeral at the church of the Holy Spirit, Greenhills, Dublin, was attended by 2,000 mourners, including President Mary Robinson, who had met Place when visiting Somalia in October 1992 to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis.
Place was the second western aid worker killed in Somalia in 1993; Sean Devereux, a UNICEF worker with Irish-born parents, was shot dead in January. Place’s death prompted demands that the task force provide aid workers with armed protection and that it disarm the warring Somali factions, and renewed criticism of the UN mandate for failing to accompany military intervention with political initiatives. Over ensuing months the situation deteriorated further, as international forces became embroiled in the conflicts among rival Somali factions, culminating in withdrawal of American troops (March 1994), and UN disengagement (March 1995).
Place was an energetic and effusive woman, with a consuming desire to assist people in need. A Valerie Place commemorative scholarship, to bring Somali nurses and teachers to Ireland for training, was established by the Department of Foreign Affairs (March 1993); a portrait of her was unveiled, and a classroom dedicated in her honour, at St James’s Hospital school of nursing (June 1997). Her brief life and tragic death highlight the extensive activities of Irish-based aid agencies in developing countries, engaged in long-term projects, emergency relief operations, and education and advocacy.