Endure to explore
WHEN the Endurance set off 100 years ago, almost to the day, with the aim of crossing the Antarctic from sea-to-sea, chances are crewman Tom Crean never foresaw a time when his name would grace cans of lager. On the other hand, that may well have been exactly the kind of fame team leader Ernest Shackleton was expecting. What a difference a century makes.
Crean, the steely Kerryman from Annascaul, has become a paragon of Irish masculinity, his craggy features popping up all over the place — even on bottles of craft beer. Shackleton, also born in Ireland, doesn’t have anything like the same ubiquity, despite his role as one of the great figures in the age of polar exploration and his preternatural leadership skills. However, that could be about to change.
