ME AND MY JOB: Clíona Conneelly has her skipper's ticket and works hard commanding the Ard Chluain trawler out of a Galway port and into the Atlantic. Catherine Foley reports

The Ard Chluain comes in to land its catch of prawns. The little 56-foot trawler docks at Rossaveal in Co Galway twice a week. The quay is full of activity. Gulls are screeching and forklifts are racing up and down the pier.

The boat, which comes in to refuel, is skippered by Clíona Conneelly, who is already planning to buy a bigger boat with her younger brother John Conneelly.

The youngest girl in her family, Connelly has had her skipper's ticket since 1997 when she completed a three-month BIM course at the National Fisheries Training Centre in Greencastle, Co Donegal. She was the only woman in the class of 20. Today she is matter-of-fact about her job.

"It's tough but rewarding," she says. "I always look forward to going out - I never drag my feet.

"We come in twice a week for ice, diesel and provisions." Other than these short trips to shore, Conneelly is out on the sea for weeks at a time, fishing about 30 miles south or south-west of the Aran Islands. "The freedom of it is lovely," she says. "You are not confined to an office."

It is physical, she agrees, "and the hours can be really long and a bit unsociable". As for the danger, "we would be very cautious in that respect," she says. They listen to the daily outlook and the weather forecasts and, if necessary, they wait until the bad weather has passed. Usually they leave at 5 a.m. from home on Inis Mór.

Once they're out over the fishing grounds, they tow the nets along the sea-bed for more than four hours at 2.4 knots using navigational aids such as the Global Positioning System.

"The fishing grounds are clearly marked," she says - so they are able to steer clean of obstructions.

Then "we heave up the nets with a winch and we bring the fish aboard and then sort out the fish, ice them and store them in the fish hold."

There's a chance to have a break then - and start the whole process again. Conneely wears protective clothing; gloves, oilskins and plenty of moisturiser, she laughs.

"We work very hard because she (the trawler) is small and it doesn't have the ideal kind of equipment." The bigger boats have machines for grading and washing the prawns. On the Fort Aengus, a bigger boat, which is skippered by her older brother, Gregory, "It's not that difficult. There's a lot of machinery that limits the hard work."

Growing up, she used to help her father paint his boat in the summer. "I used always be around the boats." After her Leaving Cert in 1993 at the Mercy Convent in Tuam, Co Galway, she was about to register at the University of Limerick, but having spent the summer fishing on the Ard Chluain, she decided to stay.

"It's cool," she says about bringing the boat into the pier. Once they land, the fish is auctioned on Thursdays and Mondays.

"I intend to stay for another couple of years. I've got plenty more years," she says. "I'll stay involved for as long as I can."