Below the decks: Meet the Irish people working on the world's cruise ships

"You’re surrounded by people from all over the world who are on holiday and are at their happiest": Jonathan de Burca Butler meets the Irish people working cruise ships around the world

Third Officer Gareth Hampton: “You end up making quite close friendships when you’re months away at sea together. So it’s quite common in this business to stop off and visit friends and colleagues from other parts of the world.”

When she heard that a representative from a spa company was en route to talk to her hairstyling class about working life on board a cruise ship, Niamh Cassidy looked at her watch and jumped in her car.

With no interest in a life on the ocean waves, she was determined to get ahead of the rush hour traffic and home to Donegal. Six months later, she found herself waking up on a boat to a view of a beach in the Caribbean.