Aid worker Mary T Murphy swaps refugee camps for short festive break in Cork before heading back to Ethiopia

Legendary aid worker returns from Ethiopia for a rest before renewing efforts to help some of the world’s most dispossessed people, writes Joyce Fegan

MARY T MURPHY, perhaps Cork’s most famous aid worker, will swap the dusty refugee camps of Ethiopia for long walks on Ballyvourney’s country roads on St Stephen’s Day, but until then it’s business as usual in her east-African compound.

Mary T, is a refugee programme manager for GOAL, and currently works across two camps in southern Ethiopia, that are home to nearly 300,000 refugees who have fled from the civil war conflict of neighbouring South Sudan.