A True Irish Hero
For the first time in a while I made the effort over Christmas to sit down and read as often as possible. Fortunately I picked up a wonderful book which had been sitting on the shelf gathering dust for the past year. The book in hand was "An Unsung Hero" the biography of Tom Crean by Michael Smith. It is a fascinating tale about the incredible hardship, immense bravery and the extreme actions that men will take to survive in the most impossible of circumstances.
Most people probably know of Tom Crean from the Guinness advert which re-enacted his 35 mile solo trek to save the lives of two comrades in bitterly cold conditions after having already trekked 1,500 miles across the Antarctic. Given his modesty and understated attitude towards his many adventures, I'm not sure what he would have thought of being the star of a TV advert for stout. But there is no doubt that if ever there was an Irishman who deserved to have his head on a stamp, it is Tom Crean.
We have many heroes: Cú Chullain; Brian Boru; Micheal Collins; Countess Markievicz; maybe even Roy Keane for some, but few could match the heroics of the great Tom Crean. A key figure in three of the most daring expeditions to the South Pole, he is regarded as one of the great polar explorers. His journey to rescue his comrades Teddy Evans and William Lashly was described by Antarctic historians as "the finest feat of individual heroism from the entire age of exploration".
He was also a member of the now infamous Endurance expedition which became stranded for over 2 years in the Antarctic. In a last desperate effort to save the crew, Crean along with Ernest Shackleton and four others, undertook a perilous 800-mile journey across the Southern Atlantic in an open top boat to South Georgia island. This tale has subsequently gone down in history as "the most remarkable boat journey of all time".
It's an inspiring and remarkable story and in a time when heroes are few and far between, it's a reminder of the greatness that can be achieved, not as a result of status and wealth (I'm thinking Steve Fosset), but though sheer grit, determination and the will to survive.
Published by Padraig.
Most people probably know of Tom Crean from the Guinness advert which re-enacted his 35 mile solo trek to save the lives of two comrades in bitterly cold conditions after having already trekked 1,500 miles across the Antarctic. Given his modesty and understated attitude towards his many adventures, I'm not sure what he would have thought of being the star of a TV advert for stout. But there is no doubt that if ever there was an Irishman who deserved to have his head on a stamp, it is Tom Crean.
We have many heroes: Cú Chullain; Brian Boru; Micheal Collins; Countess Markievicz; maybe even Roy Keane for some, but few could match the heroics of the great Tom Crean. A key figure in three of the most daring expeditions to the South Pole, he is regarded as one of the great polar explorers. His journey to rescue his comrades Teddy Evans and William Lashly was described by Antarctic historians as "the finest feat of individual heroism from the entire age of exploration".
He was also a member of the now infamous Endurance expedition which became stranded for over 2 years in the Antarctic. In a last desperate effort to save the crew, Crean along with Ernest Shackleton and four others, undertook a perilous 800-mile journey across the Southern Atlantic in an open top boat to South Georgia island. This tale has subsequently gone down in history as "the most remarkable boat journey of all time".
It's an inspiring and remarkable story and in a time when heroes are few and far between, it's a reminder of the greatness that can be achieved, not as a result of status and wealth (I'm thinking Steve Fosset), but though sheer grit, determination and the will to survive.
Published by Padraig.
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