Ernest Shackleton overcame more than geographical challenges

How Shackleton and his crew of Irish, English, and Scots worked together was a million miles away from the events taking place at the same time in Dublin 1916, writes Patrick G O’Shea of the University of Maryland

The heroic story of the Irish explorer Ernest Shackleton’s famous Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition has long been an inspiration to many of us. It was a triumph of courage, comradeship, perseverance and endurance. When the 28-man team left England in 1914 aboard the Endurance, their goal was to complete one of the great remaining exploration challenges: A crossing of the Antarctic from Atlantic to Pacific via the South Pole.

Shackleton was born in Co Kildare and was joined on the expedition by three fellow Irishmen: The legendary explorer Tom Crean from Annascaul, Co Kerry, who had performed heroically during Captain Scott’s doomed South Pole expedition; Tim McCarthy, a young seaman from Kinsale, Co Cork; and James McIIroy, an Antrim-born surgeon.