News: IRISH POLAR EXPLORER TO BE HONOURED
I thought that fellow Antarcticans might be interested to know that a memorial is to be erected in memory of Patrick Keohane, a member of Scott’s last expedition. He was one of three Irish petty officers with Scott (Crean, Forde and Keohane) and the only one whose exploits have never been formally recognised in Ireland.
The Keohane ceremony will take place at Lislee Court, between Broad Strand and Blind Strand near Courtmacsherry, Cork on Sunday, August 19. The committee has asked Clare O’Leary (first Irishwoman to walk to the South Pole) to perform the ceremony and I am giving a talk on Keohane at Courtmacsherry Community Centre on the Friday before, August 17.
A charitable committee has been established and they would welcome ay contributions. Please pass on this information to anyone you think might be interested. Would you mind passing on this information to fellow Antarcticans who may wish to make a contribution. Details: Secretary, Diarmuid Begley, Tel 023-8846683, e mail:
dbegley@eircom.net
dbegley@eircom.net
For those who do not know the Keohane story, he was born at Barry’s Point, near Courtmacsherry, in 1879. He entered the British navy in 1895 and volunteered for Scott’s Antarctic expedition in 1910. He marched to within 350 miles of the South Pole before turning back, completing a trek of almost 1,200 miles in three months. He returned to the ice and helped bury Scott’s frozen body.
Keohane had to flee Ireland in 1920 during the war of independence because he married into a coastguard family. He became a coastguard officer in England and assisted in the making of the major film, Scott of the Antarctic in 1947. He died in England in 1950, forgotten in Ireland.
Keohane’s statue will join the memorials to other Irish members of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration – Tom Crean at Anascaul, Kerry, Robert
Forde in Cobh and Tim and Mortimer McCarthy in Kinsale, Cork.
Keohane had to flee Ireland in 1920 during the war of independence because he married into a coastguard family. He became a coastguard officer in England and assisted in the making of the major film, Scott of the Antarctic in 1947. He died in England in 1950, forgotten in Ireland.
Keohane’s statue will join the memorials to other Irish members of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration – Tom Crean at Anascaul, Kerry, Robert
Forde in Cobh and Tim and Mortimer McCarthy in Kinsale, Cork.