Mum takes to high seas to captain UN aid shipments in Africa

A MOTHER-of-three has swapped her idyllic life in Co Wicklow to take control of thousands of tonnes of food aid being shipped in to east Africa.

Mary O’Neill claims she is a housewife at heart, but during her working week she faces the threat of pirates taking over her vessels in the Indian Ocean.

The 49-year-old widow, from Arklow, is port captain for the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) at Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.