Irish Examiner view: Celebrating raw courage of Antarctic explorers

Are heroism and bravery now redundant values?

An Post has issued four stamps celebrating eight Irish men who played a significant role in the epic Antarctic expeditions of the 1800s and early 1900s.

April 24 will mark the 105th anniversary of the beginning of the 1,300km voyage of the James Caird, from Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands to South Georgia.

Historians regard the voyage of the crew of six, in a small, modified lifeboat, through the Furious Fifties, as one of the greatest small-boat journeys ever completed.