Shackleton Autumn School 2022

The October Bank Holiday weekend sees the return to Athy of the SHACKLETON AUTUMN SCHOOL. The Autumn School, now in its 22nd year, returns to an in-person format, after being online for the last two years. There is a growing sense of anticipation that this might be one of the best Autumn Schools ever as there is an appetite for such gatherings post Covid. The programme curated by the Shackleton Autumn School Committee is one of the finest I have seen in many years. It combines lectures, exhibitions, book launches and a documentary showing. Given the rich and diverse programme offered by the Shackleton Autumn School it is difficult to pick out the highlights. There are a few lectures that stand out. Last November I wrote about the visit of Mensun Bound, the Falkland Island born marine archaeologist to Athy to visit the museum. At that time Mensun was preparing to depart for the Antarctic and as head of exploration on a daring mission to locate the wreck of Shackleton’s expedition ship ‘Endurance’. This was Mensun’s second attempt to find the ship after a previous expedition was unsuccessful back in 2019. When the news came through of the discovery of the wreck there was huge excitement worldwide. Few can forget the first images released in the media showing the stern of the ship with the lettering ‘Endurance’. As you can imagine Mensun has become a media star since then and this Thursday sees the launch of his book – ‘The Ship beneath the Ice’ about the discovery of the ship. Athy will be hosting one of his first public lectures since the discovery of the ship and as I understand it tickets are selling out extremely fast. Other lectures which caught my attention include Doug Allan’s on Sunday morning. The Scottish-born Doug Allan has been one of the principal cinematographers on David Attenborough’s wildlife documentaries in the frozen parts of our planet over the last 30 years and has a wealth of experience behind him. His ‘A Life on Thin Ice’ talk will reflect on his adventures in both the Arctic and the Antarctic and it is sure to draw a big crowd for what is going to be a visually spectacular presentation. Other speakers will include Astrid Furholt, the Norwegian woman who was the first woman to follow in the footsteps of Roald Amundsen to the South Pole on foot and Katherine MacInnes who will talk about the lives of the wives of the men lost on Captain Scott’s expedition to the South Pole in 1912. On Friday morning Leaving Certificate art students from the town and Carlow will be able to participate in a masterclass with sculptor Mark Richards who created that hugely evocative statue of Shackleton which has graced the Back Square since 2016. A regular feature of the Autumn School has been the launch of books on Polar topics. The Autumn School is spoiled with two book launches this year. The first is Fergus O’Gorman’s ‘Antarctic Affair’, an account of his time spent in the Antarctic in the late fifties. His book is being published by locally based Harvest Press. That book launch will occur in the Museum that Friday evening and that will be followed by another book launch in O’Brien’s pub where Russell Potter and his fellow authors will launch ‘May we be spared to meet on Earth: letters from the lost Franklin Expedition’. This book focuses on the expedition which disappeared in the Arctic. The participation of Norway in Polar affairs will also be reflected on by Geir Klover, the Director of the Fram Museum from Oslo, perhaps the greatest polar museum in the world, when he takes a look back on the reputation of Norway’s greatest polar explorer, Roald Amundsen 150 years after his birth. Other lectures include Naas man Kevin Kenny’s introduction to Ernest Shackleton and environmentalist Sadbh O’Neill’s reflection on what Ernest Shackleton can teach us about resilience and leadership in the age of climate crisis. Other events will include an Autumn School dinner in the Green Barn at Burtown, a bus tour of Shackleton country led by local writer John MacKenna and myself and the final event of the weekend will be a showing of the wonderful documentary, ‘Shackleton’s Cabin’ which aired on RTE back in May and that will be shown in the Athy Arts Centre on Sunday night at 8pm. The showing will then be followed by a question-and-answer session with Sven Habermann, the conservator who restored Shackleton’s cabin, and also with Shane Brennan, the producer and director of the documentary. There is a little something for everybody in the weekend and I would encourage people in the town to have a look at the brochure which is available on the museum website, www.shackletonmuseum.com as there is bound to be something of interest to every age and background.