A SERIES of events to mark Captain Scott’s final dinner in Wales before his journey to the South Pole 100 years ago is drawing some of the world’s great explorers to Co Kerry this weekend.
Organised by the Irish Explorers Trust, the events began at the Kerry County Museum in Tralee yesterday where Antarctic memorabilia was presented, for the museum’s Antarctic exhibition room.
Explorer and mountaineer Mike O’Shea, who will form part of the first Irish expedition to the North Pole this year, presented the 1910-1913 polar medals of Cork man Pat Keohane, along with his sleeping bag. Keohane, from Courtmacsherry, Co Cork, formed part of Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova expedition.
He was with the group who set out and discovered Scott’s frozen body in October 1912. His 1913 medal from the Royal Geographic Society was also presented.
Mr O’Shea, of the Irish Explorers Trust, said the aim was to ensure the massive contribution of Irish explorers was properly acknowledged. He appealed for support for the trust to ensure as much as possible would be bought for Irish museums.
“We’re all talking about these great Irish heroes but we are actually doing nothing to protect their heritage and their memory,” he said.
The trust bought Keohane’s medals at a Christie’s auction in Wales. The trust faced competition from wealthy international museums when it came to acquiring Irish polar material, he added.
Kerry Museum curator Dr Helen O’Carroll said the items would form an important part of the museum’s Antarctic exhibition room which already has an impressive collection of items belonging to Kerry man Tom Crean, who was also in Scott’s team. The original ribbons were attached to the polar medals, she noted. A framed map of the Antarctic was presented by Col Ronnie J Smith, former US Airforce commander of operation Deep Freeze, who used to command the military mission for air and sealift operations.
This meant spending five months at the South Pole each year and he will talk about this in his lecture tomorrow.
Dealing with the whiteness and the 24-hour daylight had been tough, he said, but he had devised ways of dealing with it including putting foil on his cabin windows.
A black-tie dinner replicating Scott’s celebration meal in Cardiff in 1910, before he set off, takes place tonight.