A century-old St Patrick's Day postcard finds its way from Antarctica to Cork

The postcard was written in 1910 to Patrick Keohane, the famed Antarctic explorer, by his sister Hannah

Hannah Keohane's 1910 postcard to her explorer brother Patrick Keohane was found in Antarctica in 1963.

An Irish Examiner reader has shared what he believes might be one of the “most travelled St Patrick’s Day postcards ever”.

The century-old card, first posted in March 1910, made its way from Ireland to Antarctica and back, surviving an extraordinary journey in even more extraordinary times.

“One of the many great stories I have ever heard of the Irish in Antarctica involves a postcard,” says our reader, Cork native Eugene Furlong. “It went from Cork to Antarctica and back.” 

The harp-clad postcard was written by Hannah Keohane in Cork to her older brother Patsy (or Patrick) Keohane, a petty officer on the HMS Repulse.

The postcard was sent to celebrate St Patrick's Day and Keohane's upcoming birthday.

According to online records, Patrick Keohane was born in Courtmacsherry, Co Cork in 1879. He joined the Royal Navy in Cobh at just 16 years old.

As a member of the Royal Navy, he was selected, along with Tom Crean, to join Captain Robert Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova expedition to Antarctica in May 1910. He was 30 years old at the time.

Scott held the Cork man in high regard, sharing a tent with him for part of the journey. He was selected as one of 15 men to accompany the captain on his 900-mile trek to the South Pole in October 1911.

Two months later, he was told to return to base at Cape Evans with other members of the team. It was a disappointing decision but one that saved his life.

In March 1912, Keohane was part of a group that tried to find Scott’s missing exploration party and bring them back to base. They soon had to return due to poor weather and depleting provisions.

On 12 November, he was a part of the group who found the frozen bodies of Scott, Dr Edward Wilson, Petty Officer Edgar Evans, Captain Lawrence Oates, and Lt Henry Bowers.

Keohane’s final role in the expedition was to help erect a wooden cross in Antarctica in memory of his friends. He sailed from Cape Evans for the last time on 26 January 1913 aboard the Terra Nova.

Keohane returned to Ireland in 1914 and married Bridget O’Driscoll in Courtmacsherry. They had one daughter, Sheila ‘Nova’, named after the ship, in March 1915.

He later joined the Coast Guard service and was transferred back to Britain, where he served in World War II as an instructor at the secret Radar and Telegraphy Training School on the Isle of Man.

He died in Plymouth in 1950, at the age of 71.

The address that Hannah put on the 1910 postcard to her brother turned out to include the incorrect name for his ship, writing the card to the “HMS Impulse at Devonport Docks, England”.

Unaware of her brother’s exact address she included a line saying “or elsewhere" on the card.

Eugene Furlong says that Hannah’s postcard did eventually make it to Cape Evans, but Patrick had unfortunately left a few years earlier.

In 1963 a group of Australian explorers found the postcard at Cape Evans and redirected it back to its sender, who had died before its return.

“My dear brother. I am sending you the shamrock for St Patrick's day,” the card read. 

“Also a pair of socks for your birthday present. Hoping you will enjoy many a happy birthday. Trusting you are well as we are all here. Your fond sister Hannah.” 

In 2012, a memorial statue of Keohane was unveiled in his honour in Courtmacsherry.