From Cape Clear lifeboat baby to Ireland's first female ferry skipper 

“I get the DTs if I’m away from the sea too long. I love getting into the car on Fridays [after teaching] and heading down to get the last ferry home.”

Niamh Ní Dhrisceoil on her family's lobster boat, off Cape Clear

As a baby, Niamh Ní Dhrisceoil either napped in the bow of her dad’s fishing punt while he hauled in lobster pots – or in her carrycot on the tractor while he fed cattle on their Cape Clear Island farm.

“Mum was principal in the island’s national school so my dad minded me while she was at work,” explains Niamh, a secondary schoolteacher at Coláiste Choilm, Ballincollig, and Ireland’s first female ferry skipper.