A mild-mannered Corkman with no maritime ancestry would appear to be a strange choice for Captain of the Irish Navy's LE Aisling, twinned with Galway city, but it is immediately clear to anyone speaking to him that Neil Manning is well suited to his job.

Joining the Navy in 1991, Neil has seen his fair share of adventure thanks to a career guidance counsellor who advised him to do the interview "for the practice".

"Sixteen years later," he grins, "and here I am". Joining the Navy opened a whole new life for Neil. "If you're not involved in the sea, you've no idea of what's going on in the industry. If you live in Galway, you might see the ships coming in and out and go to the beach, but you've no idea about the fishing industry, the pleasure industry, and everything that goes on."

Naval cadets work the ship "literally from the bottom up", according to Neil. "You work with everyone on board, and you really start off at the lowest rank, scrubbing decks, cleaning toilets, peeling potatoes. You learn everything about the ship from the bottom up."

Neil also spent nine months training with the Royal Navy in England, which, he says, was a great experience as they did an international course, including officers from Fiji and India.

Neil's first posting as a full-fledged Naval officer was as gunnery officer on the LE Deirdre. This involved looking after the guns on board, supervising and training the gun crew, and boarding fisheries vessels. While the general public might not know what this involves, Neil says "you wouldn't be firing in anger but people do have to be well trained."

As captain of the LE Aisling (this week sees his first anniversary on board the ship), which has been "adopted" by Galway City, Neil spends a lot of time in the City of the Tribes, but the past year has seen the vessel travel further afield. A Baltic tour, designed to promote Ireland and Irish business, involved a month at sea, taking in Norway, Denmark and Poland.

While the job "can be tough in the winter, when the weather is bad", there are plenty of adventures too. This July, the LE Aisling recovered €80,000 worth of cannabis off the Aran Islands, and in August Neil and his crew rescued a Russian sailor off the West Coast.

With "the highs and lows of any job", it may not quite be the stuff of legend, but it appears that the Defence Forces tagline of ?A Life Less Ordinary' certainly applies in the Navy.

For more information about the Irish Navy see www.defenceforces.ie/naval.

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