Irish Government urged to purchase Polar medal of Ernest Shackleton
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Calls are being made on the Irish Government to purchase the Polar Medal of Anglo Irish explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton.
This week a memorial stone containing Irish limestone was unveiled at Westminster Abbey in London to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth.
Shackleton, who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic, was born in Kilkea, Co Kildare and moved to Sydenham in south London when he was ten years old.
The Polar Medal is awarded to individuals for outstanding service in the field of polar research. A temporary bar has been placed on Sir Ernest’s medal being exported from the UK. The British Government hopes that an institution in the country will purchase it. The medal is valued at £1.7 million (€1.99m).
The decision on the badge's export licence application, which would give approval for it to be sent abroad, has been deferred until May 1.
Meanwhile, Irish groups say the medal should be bought by the Government in this country before it vanishes into the hands of a private collector.
Kevin Kenny of Shackleton Museum in Athy, Co Kildare says that the medal should be purchased for display in Ireland.
"Its real value is as an inspiring and historic artefact and the best place for this is on public display, with the Shackleton Museum being its natural home. It's just a matter of the Irish State making the small investment needed.
The museum is currently closed to allow for its redevelopment into a world class centre focused on Ernest Shackleton and his legacy. It is scheduled to re open in June of next year.
Ernest Shackleton was born on the February 15, 1874. He was the second child to arrive to his parents, Henry and Henrietta. His family grew to eight girls and two boys. His birth was among the new arrivals listed in the Irish Times on February 17, 1874.
At the age of sixteen he joined the Merchant Navy, qualifying as a master mariner in 1898. Shackleton's first experience of the polar regions was as third officer on Captain Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery expedition of 1901–1904, from which he was sent home early on health grounds.
In 1907, Shackleton returned to Antarctica, leading the Nimrod Expedition. Within 97 miles of the South Pole, he decided to turn back as food supplies were low.
His most notable expedition was that of Endurance in 1914, where he hoped to achieve the first crossing of the White Continent from the Weddell Sea via the South Pole to the Ross Sea. Although he was unsuccessful in reaching the destination, the survival of his crew highlighted his exceptional leadership.
During his career, Shackleton was awarded the Polar Medal, fourteen medals by other nations; and eighteen medals by geographical and learned societies. He one of the key figures associated with the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Sir Ernest Shackleton died in 1922 at the age of 47.