Is this a first? A 2,000-metre high mountain in Antarctica is to be called after an Irishman, living. Manahan Peak, on Ross Island, where Scott spent his first winter, is being named for Donal Manahan, Dean of Science at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. A biological scientist, Manahan has been 20 years in the US and has spent eight "sessions" in Antarctica since 1983, and is chair of Polar Research at the National Academy of Sciences.
The decision to bestow the honour was made by the National Science Foundation in Washington in recognition of his studies on marine animals. Manahan is a brother of DFA's Cliona Manahan Leslie, now at the Irish Embassy, Paris.