Kerryman the first Irishman at the Pole

THE first Irishman to set foot on the South Pole is looking forward to a homecoming banquet of brown bread baked by his children.

It's only fitting that a Kerryman has claimed the Pole for Ireland the last Irishman to leave his footprints near the frozen reference point of exploration was Annascaul's Tom Crean who, in 1912, got within 150 miles of the Pole before he was ordered to turn back by his expedition leader Robert Scott.

Adventurer Mike Barry, a 50-year-old father of three from Tralee, spent 50 days pulling a 70lb sled across 700 miles of the frozen wilderness often in blizzard and whiteout conditions and wind-chill temperatures of minus 40 degrees celsius before he reached the conclusion of his epic adventure.