Tag Archives: Ernest Shackleton

THE story of the life of Ernest Shackleton and the legendary voyage of the HMS Endurance on its expedition to cross the Antarctic continent is being told as part of a new show in glór this weekend marking the centenary of the explorer’s death. County Kildare Orchestra presents ‘South! Always South’, a concert commemorating the death 100 years ago this year of Irish explorer Shackleton. The performance, on Saturday, November 12 in the Ennis venue, is a new work composed by fellow Kildare native and traditional musician Brian Hughes who performs uilleann pipes and whistle, accompanied by the County Kildare Orchestra and conductor Lorcan Daly. Shackleton was born in Kilkea near Athy, and had already gained a reputation for courage and leadership on previous Antarctic expeditions. However, what started as a great geographic and scientific adventure turned into a dramatic rescue mission when the Endurance became trapped in the ice floes in the Weddell Sea, and sank. Over the following …

HIS achievements ring out a century on but few will know some of the sides of Ernest Shackleton that Michael Smith shines a light on, in his biography of the explorer, By Endurance We Conquer. This book is a logical step on from Smith’s earlier book, An Unsung Hero Tom Crean – Antarctic Survivor. That work brought Crean into the Irish public consciousness for the first time and Smith, a former political and business journalist with The Guardian and The Observer, said he started writing it when he realised no-one else had chronicled the life of the Kerry man. “The more I read about people like Captain Scott and Shackleton and Amundsen, the more I came across this fella called Tom Crean and I thought I’d like to read about him. He seemed to be an interesting character, he cropped up everywhere. “Of course, when I looked for a book, there wasn’t one about him. That coincided with the time …