Do you know anyone who might be a descendant or distant relative of St Brendan the Navigator? Maybe someone little known who is comparable with ice legend Tom Crean of Kerry? Or perhaps you’ve a connection to High Latitudes explorer and researcher Francis Crozier, who was born in Banbridge in 1796? Or maybe there’s someone who is similarly linked to renowned iceman Leopold McClintock, born Dundalk 1819?
IRISH POLAR INSTITUTE
The Irish Polar Institute, founded last year with noted ice sailor Maire Breathnach of Dungarvan as President and the enthusiastic support of sailors of the calibre of Blue Water Medallists Paddy Barry and Jarlath Cunnane, is seeking recommendations from members for the second annual (2027) award of it Polar Medal.
The first award, the 2026 Medal, was presented at the IPI’s inaugural dinner in the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire in January 2026, and it went to the Scottish family of Glaswegian ship’s carpenter Harry McNish.
The great Tom Crean is very appropriately commemorated in the Irish Research Ship Tom Crean. Photo: IMI
SERIOUS SEA-SAILING
Despite his sterling work in converting the ship’s lifeboat James Caird into a serious sea-sailing proposition in order that a rescue could be found for the crew of Ernest Shackleton’s ice-sunk Endurance in 1916, the sometime decidedly thrawn yet talented McNish had been passed over for the award of the Polar Medal which went to most of Shackleton’s expedition.
Thus the initial IPI medal was seen as putting right an historic wrong. But now it can be freely used on an annual basis to highlight the perhaps unknown Irish origins of the high latitude heroes, sometimes of other nations, inspired by the recognition now widely given to the great Tom Crean of County Kerry (1877-1938).
Annual membership of the IPI involves a modest €20, and the best contact regarding joining and making your medal recommendation by August 31st is through Paddy Barry, [email protected]
The Annual Dinner and second award of the IPI Medal is scheduled for Friday January 22nd 2027 at the National Yacht Club.
The Iceman of Dundalk: Leopold McClintock (1819-1907).
