Sailors Paddy Barry and Jarlath Cunnane are among founders of a new Irish Polar Institute which aims to mark the almost forgotten achievements of individuals in the Arctic and Antarctic.
As The Irish Independent reports, the institute will give an annual medal, based on nominations by its members.
The institute’s chair is Máire Breathnach, a musician from Dungarvan, Co Waterford and the first woman to sail solo around Ireland.
Irish Polar Institute Chair Máire Breathnach
Some 15 years ago, both she and her niece, Sibéal Turraoin, became the first two Irish women to navigate the North-West passage, the ice-bound Arctic route linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
That navigation was undertaken on a 44ft gaff-rigged steel yawl with her husband, Andrew Wilkes, and crew member Dermot O’Riordan.
Breathnach has also crossed the Atlantic several times and sailed around South America, for which she has been honoured by the Irish Cruising Club.
“It’s a great idea, “Breathnach says of the idea to set up the institute, spearheaded by Paddy Barry, Arctic, Antarctic and transatlantic sailor and climber.
Cunnane and Barry were leaders of the first global circumnavigation by a yacht via the Arctic polar route between 2001 and 2005.
Breathnach notes that Co Cork alone has five great explorers who are not household names, such as Courtmacsherry’s Patrick Keohane, a key member of Robert Scott’s Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole, and Edward Bransfield from Ballinacurra, near Midleton, Co Cork, who was press-ganged into the British navy as a teenager and became first man to sight Antarctica.
There’s also the Kinsale brothers Mortimer and Tim McCarthy who served with Scott and Shackleton respectively; and Robert Forde of Bandon, who was also part of Scott’s Terra Nova expedition and after whom a peak in Antarctica is named.
“Inevitably the sort of people we will be recognising for their achievements in past years will be male, but in more recent years you have women like Cork doctor Clare O’Leary who was the first Irish woman to trek to the South Pole,”Breathnach notes.
O’Leary, a consultant doctor from Bandon, Co Cork, had previously been first Irish woman to ascend Mount Everest.
The Irish Polar Institute aims to take nominations for its annual award from its members – with membership at 20 euro annually open to anyone with an interest in polar history and exploration.
A shortlist of eligible candidates will be compiled and a winner selected. If the award is posthumous, it will be presented to descendants or to a related group or association.
The institute has developed a logo, depicting a compass rose with the north and south cardinal points.
It has also issued its first newsletter in which Jarlath Cunnane writes about the early use of radio by Antarctic explorers, pioneered by Australian geologist Douglas Mawson.
Its voluntary committee, chaired by Breathnach, comprises experienced Irish sailors who have spent time in polar regions – with Paddy Barry as secretary, Rory Casey as treasurer, and members Adrian Spence, Andrew Wilkes, Jarlath Cunnane, Kevin Cronin and Michael Brogan.
Read The Irish Independent here
