OnTheTown: A sense of adventure was in the air at the opening of a spectacular exhibition which documents arguably the greatest tale of survival in expedition history in the National Museum of Ireland on Benburb Street this week.
A near-fatal expedition to Antarctica, led by Sir Earnest Shackleton in 1914, ran into trouble when the ship Endurance became trapped in pack ice and was eventually crushed on the Weddell Sea.
"It wasn't a rescue, it was more an escape," said Dr Dawson Stelfox, the first Irish climber to ascend Everest at Wednesday's launch.
After surviving on ice-floats, the crew were forced on to Elephant Island, where they remained for 18 months. When no one came to rescue them, Sir Shackleton selected a crew of five men, which included Tom Crean, the Kerry-born explorer, to sail 800 miles in a bid to mount their own rescue. The boat journey and eventual rescue that followed is widely regarded as a miracle of seamanship.
A cousin of the famous explorer, Jonathan Shackleton, was also at the launch of the exhibition which has come from the American Museum of Natural History and was opened by the Minister for Arts, John O'Donoghue.
"This is the first and last showing of this exhibition in Europe," said Jonathan Shackleton who visits Antarctica every year. Along with John MacKenna, he has written a book about his relative, entitled An Irishman in Antarctica, published by Lilliput Press.
Tom Crean's daughter, Mary Crean-O'Brien, said she was pleased her father was being honoured. "He was not a man that boasted."
Brendan Crean, Tom Crean's grandson, was also enjoying the exhibition with his wife Kay.
"The Crean family donated many letters and other artefacts here," he said. A fourth-generation Crean was also present, Tom Crean's great-great grandson, five-year-old Ben Webster-O'Brien.
The photography of James Hurley, one of the men who accompanied the expedition, brings the show to life.
The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition is at the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, Benburb Street, Dublin 7 until late October