From: "Ruth-Ann M. Harris"
Subject: of Wake Houses and "The Queen's Broad Arrow"


I have two queries to ask of my colleagues on the Diaspora List.
1. Wake Houses: I've found references to a Wake House in my work on
the mid-19th century Shirley Estate, Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan. Does
anyone have other experience of houses designated specifically for wakes.
2. "The Queen's [or King's] Broad Arrow": what do readers know of
this? I know a little but would like to know more.

Ruth-Ann Harris



Ruth-Ann M. Harris, Adjunct Prof of History and Irish Studies, Boston
College
Note new e-mail address: harrisrd[at]bc.edu
Home Phone: (617)522-4361; FAX:(617)983-0328; Office Phone:(617)552-1571
Summer and Weekend Number: (Phone) (603) 938-2660

From: C McCaffrey
Subject: Re: Ir-D Ruth Dudley Edwards Article

Thanks for this. It may not be such a strange concept though and certainly
not
new for Ireland to be multi-ethnic. The past in Ireland is not what most
people
believe it to be either. The so called 'Celtic' Ireland is held to be
largely
mythological by archaeologists anyway as no evidence for a Celtic invasion
has
ever been found and the philologists are willing to admit that in spite of
the
Celtic language the Celts themselves, if they did come, were always only a
minority on the island. The notion of multi ethnic roots in Ireland is now
fairly accepted.
If we add to this the more modern truth that in the 1800s the Protestant
population was close to 40% for the whole island and in Dublin alone near
70%
we can see the falseness of the idea of one religion, one people etc. etc.
that
was so much a part of 20th century triumphalism.

Carmel



irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk wrote:

> Ruth Dudley Edwards
> The many colours of the future
>
>
> IMAGINE the following. You are Seán Citizen. It is 2030. The major Irish
> cities and towns are multi-racial, and though there are many vibrant
> cultures and religions about, immigrants are well integrated into society
> and enjoy being Afro-Irish, Asian-Irish or whatever. The country boasts
> businessmen, writers, broadcasters, churchmen, civil servants,
politicians,
> lawyers, doctors, professors, gardaí, actors and singers from the ethnic
> minorities. Irish blacks waving tricolours have helped win an
unprecedented
> number of Olympic medals.
>

Irish-Diaspora list member,
Lyndon Fraser
in New Zealand
l.fraser[at]soci.canterbury.ac.nz
http://www.soci.canterbury.ac.nz/staff-lf.htmin

would like to present a conference paper on an aspect of Irish-New Zealand
studies at a Conference in either Ireland, North
America or Great Britain during the second half of next year, 2001.

Can we think of any Conference possibilities for Lyndon? He tells us that
it is extremely difficult to get this kind of
information in NZ.

P.O'S.

From: Alexander Peach
Subject: RE: Ir-D Conferences in the North?


For the UK - Try this list of UK conferences provided by NISS.
http://www.niss.ac.uk/cr/events/conf.html


"NISS has provided comprehensive, professionally maintained online
information services for the UK education sector since 1988, and now also
provides information solutions for clients in government, health and other
sectors.
The NISS Campus website and StudentZone service offer access to key
information resources for staff, students and researchers. NISS also hosts
and maintains an ever-increasing number of websites for other
organisations. NISS works closely alongside Athens and CHEST - all three
are divisions of EduServ."

Best wishes

Alex Peach



- -----Original Message-----
From: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk [SMTP:irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk]
Sent: 01 December 2000 07:07
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Ir-D Conferences in the North?


Irish-Diaspora list member,
Lyndon Fraser
in New Zealand
l.fraser[at]soci.canterbury.ac.nz
http://www.soci.canterbury.ac.nz/staff-lf.htmin

would like to present a conference paper on an aspect of Irish-New Zealand
studies at a Conference in either Ireland, North
America or Great Britain during the second half of next year, 2001.

Can we think of any Conference possibilities for Lyndon? He tells us that
it is extremely difficult to get this kind of
information in NZ.

P.O'S.

From: Kerby Miller
Subject: Re: Ir-D Polemics 2

Protestant population of Ireland "close to 40%" in "the 1800s"!?!
Liam Kennedy's and my work on the 1831 Religious Census (the grand
and county totals of which are very close to those of the official
Census of that year) do not suggest a Protestant percentage anywhere
nearly that high. E.g., even 9-county Ulster's population in 1831
was only 47% Protestant, and Dublin city's 26% and its suburban
parishes 35 % Protestant. The island's Protestant population was
probably at its height (proportionately) in the early 1700s, before
large-scale Ulster Presbyterian and southern Protestant emigration
from the 1720s on; but ca. 1731-32 the Hearth Money Returns (which,
if anything, would have under-counted Catholic peasants) produced an
Irish Protestant population that comprised only about 27-28% of the
island's total.

None of the above is intended to mitigate the force of Carmel's
general argument, but it's always best to ground any argument in the
most solid data available.

Kerby Miller.




>From: C McCaffrey
>Subject: Re: Ir-D Ruth Dudley Edwards Article
>
>Thanks for this. It may not be such a strange concept though and certainly
>not
>new for Ireland to be multi-ethnic. The past in Ireland is not what most
>people
>believe it to be either. The so called 'Celtic' Ireland is held to be
>largely
>mythological by archaeologists anyway as no evidence for a Celtic invasion
>has
>ever been found and the philologists are willing to admit that in spite of
>the
>Celtic language the Celts themselves, if they did come, were always only a
>minority on the island. The notion of multi ethnic roots in Ireland is now
>fairly accepted.
>If we add to this the more modern truth that in the 1800s the Protestant
>population was close to 40% for the whole island and in Dublin alone near
>70%
>we can see the falseness of the idea of one religion, one people etc. etc.
>that
>was so much a part of 20th century triumphalism.
>
>Carmel
>
>
>
>irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk wrote:
>
> > Ruth Dudley Edwards
> > The many colours of the future
> >
> >
> > IMAGINE the following. You are Se·n Citizen. It is 2030. The major
Irish
> > cities and towns are multi-racial, and though there are many vibrant
> > cultures and religions about, immigrants are well integrated into
society
> > and enjoy being Afro-Irish, Asian-Irish or whatever. The country boasts
> > businessmen, writers, broadcasters, churchmen, civil servants,
>politicians,
> > lawyers, doctors, professors, gardaÌ, actors and singers from the
ethnic
> > minorities. Irish blacks waving tricolours have helped win an
>unprecedented
> > number of Olympic medals.
> >

From: Elizabeth Malcolm
Subject: Protestant Population of Ireland

Just to confirm and add to Kerby Miller's statistics, Vaughan and
Fitzpatrick (eds), 'Irish Historical Statistics' (1978), pp 49-51,
60, shows the following from census data:

Protestant Percentage of Irish Population

1861 22.31 1911 26.14

Protestant Percentage of Free State/Republic Population

1926 7.4 1971 6.13

Protestant Percentage of Northern Ireland Population

1926 66.5 1971 68.6

Protestant Percentage of Dublin City Population

1861 22.9 1891 17.8

Protestant Population of Dublin Suburbs Population

1861 41.6

I think it's fair to say that in the late 19th century protestants
made up around one-quarter of the Irish population as a whole, but
they were very unevenly distributed. In 1861 they composed 49.5 per
cent of the population in the 9 counties of Ulster, but only 5.2 per
cent of the population in the 5 counties of Connacht.

So in some areas they were a very significant group, while in others
they were barely there - except of course for their influence in
terms of wealth and political power. My recent experience of England
and Australia are of ethnic groups also being very unevenly
distributed - concentrated, for instance, in large cities and almost
absent from small towns and country areas - which makes
generalisations about influence and attitudes rather difficult.



ELM



Professor Elizabeth Malcolm Tel: +61-3-8344 3924
Department of History Fax: +61-3-8344 7894
University of Melbourne email: e.malcolm[at]unimelb.edu.au
Parkville, Victoria
Australia 3010

From: Sarah Morgan
Subject: Re: Ir-D Wake House / Broad Arrow

Dear Ruth-Ann,

In my local area in Ireland(Co Carlow), I have heard 'wake house' used to
refer to any house where a dead person is being waked. It is particularly
used to refer to the house at night time, when the corpse is waked. During
the day the house would be called the 'prayer house' (usually by older
people) as this is when the priest and the religiously minded would
visit to pray for the soul of the dead person.

Sarah Morgan.

On Fri 1 Dec Nov 2000 07:06:00 +0000 irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk wrote:

>
> From: "Ruth-Ann M. Harris"
> Subject: of Wake Houses and "The Queen's Broad Arrow"
>
>
> I have two queries to ask of my colleagues on the Diaspora List.
> 1. Wake Houses: I've found references to a Wake House in my work on
> the mid-19th century Shirley Estate, Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan. Does
> anyone have other experience of houses designated specifically for wakes.
> 2. "The Queen's [or King's] Broad Arrow": what do readers know of
> this? I know a little but would like to know more.
>
> Ruth-Ann Harris
>
>
>
> Ruth-Ann M. Harris, Adjunct Prof of History and Irish Studies, Boston
> College
> Note new e-mail address: harrisrd[at]bc.edu
> Home Phone: (617)522-4361; FAX:(617)983-0328; Office Phone:(617)552-1571
> Summer and Weekend Number: (Phone) (603) 938-2660
>
>

----------------------
Sarah Morgan,
Deputy Director,
Irish Studies Centre,
University of North London,
166-220 Holloway Rd.,
London N7 8DB
s.morgan[at]unl.ac.uk

Two items of interest from the Northampton Connolly Association...

I am guessing that the Mac Amhlaigh short stories are English language versions.

But I will enquire...

Mac Amhlaigh settled in Northampton - which is in the English Midlands - in 1951, worked as a labourer there, and continued to write in Irish.

P.O'S.


Forwarded on behalf of the...

Northampton Connolly Association
5 Woodland Avenue
Abington Park
Northampton NN3 2BY

Tel. 01604-715793
e-mail. pmcelt[at]cs.com
=================================

Early Next Year.

THE SELECTED SHORT STORIES OF DONAL MAC AMHLAIGH.

A chronicler of the Irish working experience in Britain and author of 'The
Irish Navvy etc. £5.00

[to be published in January 2001

details

tel. 01604-7157903

e-mail. pmcelt[at]cs.com
============================
THE IRISHMEN
An Impression of Exile

A film on video, 50 minutes long
by Seamus Ennis
and
Philip Donnellan
which shares the life of the working Irish in Britain and celebrates their
strength, skills, and their contribution to the building of this island.

Including songs and music by Joe Heaney and Ewan MacColl

This film, first made in 1965 now represents a social history of work and
emigration.

· films with a family in Connemara and follows one of its sons on his
lonely journey to Euston Station London.
· rides with the men who drive the big earthmovers building a motorway.
M1.M6
· joins the men at work deep under Oxford Circus driving tunnels that now
carry thousands on the Victoria line.

£17.50 inclusive

[nb. this film is sold on behalf of the widow of the director Philip
Donnellan late of Passage West, Co.Cork]

Subject: Merseypride

Ir-D member John Belchem would like us to know that -- at long last -- his
book on
Liverpool has been published by Liverpool University Press.

'Merseypride: essays in Liverpool exceptionalism' will be
launched at Liverpool Town Hall on Thursday 7 December by
Councillor Mike Storey, leader of the City Council.

John Belchem would be very grateful if you could order copies for
university libraries etc and help with getting the book reviewed
as widely as possible.

For more information, contact Janet Smith at LUP
email: J.M.Smith[at]liverpool.ac.uk

P.O'S.

- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit

Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/

Personal Fax National 0870 284 1580
Fax International +44 870 284 1580

Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Department of Interdisciplinary Human Studies
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England

From: C McCaffrey
Subject: Re: Ir-D Protestant population of Ireland 2

What the statistics fail to show however, is that prior to the end of
the nineteenth century in Ireland there was much 'mixture' of religion
in families and the Protestant population was not necessarily a set
apart group. In my own family in Dublin it was customary [as it was in
other Dublin families] for the boy children to follow the religion of
the father and the girl children to follow the religion of the mother.
This changed when the Catholic Church insisted on children of a mixed
religious marriage all being raised Roman Catholic but this was only
from the early 20th century. My father always insisted that the prior
custom was far better and led to better relations between the churches.

Carmel

irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk wrote:

> From: Elizabeth Malcolm
> Subject: Protestant Population of Ireland
>
> So in some areas they were a very significant group, while in others
> they were barely there - except of course for their influence in
> terms of wealth and political power. My recent experience of England
> and Australia are of ethnic groups also being very unevenly
> distributed - concentrated, for instance, in large cities and almost
> absent from small towns and country areas - which makes
> generalisations about influence and attitudes rather difficult.
>
>
> ELM
>
> Professor Elizabeth Malcolm Tel: +61-3-8344 3924
> Department of History Fax: +61-3-8344 7894
> University of Melbourne email: e.malcolm[at]unimelb.edu.au
> Parkville, Victoria
> Australia 3010
>
>

From: "joan hugman"
Subject: Re: Ir-D Merseypride

Dear Patrick
do you have any more details about John's book on Liverpool
exceptionalism (contributors? contributions? period?).
thanks
Joan
Subject:
Ir-D Merseypride Date: Mon 4 Dec 2000 13:26:00 +0000
From: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Reply-to: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk


Subject: Merseypride

Ir-D member John Belchem would like us to know that -- at long last -- his
book on
Liverpool has been published by Liverpool University Press.

'Merseypride: essays in Liverpool exceptionalism' will be
launched at Liverpool Town Hall on Thursday 7 December by
Councillor Mike Storey, leader of the City Council.

John Belchem would be very grateful if you could order copies for
university libraries etc and help with getting the book reviewed
as widely as possible.

For more information, contact Janet Smith at LUP
email: J.M.Smith[at]liverpool.ac.uk

P.O'S.

- --
Joan Hugman
Department of History, Armstrong Building,
University of Newcastle NE1 7RU Tel 0191 222 6701

From: DanCas1[at]aol.com
Subject: Re: Ir-D Protestant population of Ireland 3-query

In a message dated 12/4/00 6:03:15 AM Pacific Standard Time,
irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk writes:

> In my own family in Dublin it was customary [as it was in
> other Dublin families] for the boy children to follow the religion of
> the father and the girl children to follow the religion of the mother.


A Chairde:

Could the origins of this religious "gender divide" amongst siblings of
"mixed marriages" have any relation to the substantial legal penalties
regarding property and inheritance rights, wherein "papist" siblings might
be
penalized by either the Penal Laws themselves or some of the PL's
jurisprudential "offspring" in the later periods? Certainly, until Catholic
Emancipation (and even afterwards under the 'Old Boy' principle) this would
also open up a host of non-religious vocational opportunities for the males,
such as the Army, Courts, government, etc.

Obviously, this would not apply if the father were a Catholic. So, perhaps I
should return to my desk and go back to work.

Daniel Cassidy

From: Professor John Belchem
Subject: Re: Ir-D Merseypride 2

In reply to Joan's questions. I thought Irish-Diaspora list
members might be interested in my book 'Merseypride' because Part
Two is called 'Irish-Liverpool' and includes essays on:

Ribbonism, nationalism and the Irish pub
Charity, ethnicity and the Catholic parish
Micks on the make on the Mersey

For those who were at the Bochum Conference, Part Four (Comparative
Perspectives) includes an essay, 'Ethnicity, migration and
labour history', an extended version of my opening lecture
on the Irish and Polish Migration in Comparative
Perspective.

Other essays (all by myself) range over the 19th and 20th,
including 'Liverpool's story is the world's glory', an
anlaysis of how history has become Merseypride heritage.
And an updated version of my paper, 'An accent exceedingly
rare: scouse and the inflexion of class'.

Thanks for allowing such self-promotion!

John Belchem

On Mon 4 Dec 2000 16:00:00 +0000
irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk wrote:

>
>
> From: "joan hugman"
> Subject: Re: Ir-D Merseypride
>
> Dear Patrick
> do you have any more details about John's book on Liverpool
> exceptionalism (contributors? contributions? period?).
> thanks
> Joan
> Subject:
> Ir-D Merseypride Date: Mon 4 Dec 2000 13:26:00 +0000
> From: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
> Reply-to: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
> To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
>
>
> Subject: Merseypride
>
> Ir-D member John Belchem would like us to know that -- at long last -- his
> book on
> Liverpool has been published by Liverpool University Press.
>
> 'Merseypride: essays in Liverpool exceptionalism' will be
> launched at Liverpool Town Hall on Thursday 7 December by
> Councillor Mike Storey, leader of the City Council.
>
> John Belchem would be very grateful if you could order copies for
> university libraries etc and help with getting the book reviewed
> as widely as possible.
>
> For more information, contact Janet Smith at LUP
> email: J.M.Smith[at]liverpool.ac.uk
>
> P.O'S.
>
> --
> Joan Hugman
> Department of History, Armstrong Building,
> University of Newcastle NE1 7RU Tel 0191 222 6701

----------------------
ah14[at]liverpool.ac.uk
Professor John Belchem, Head of School
School of History, University of Liverpool
9 Abercromby Square, Liverpool L69 7WZ
Phone: (0)151-794-2394 Fax (0)151-794-2366

Earlier in the year there was a special Irish edition of the Historical
Journal of Film, Radio and Television.

Preamble, contact point, and Contents follow. Note that your own emailer
may fracture that long Web address. People should also remember to search

http://www.findarticles.com/

P.O'S.


'This issue of Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television is dedicated
to the media history of Ireland: both the Irish Republic-Eire--and the six
counties of Northern Ireland that remain a part of the UK. It seeks to show
not only how an understanding of the media can illuminate Irish historical
experiences, but also how Irish historical experiences can illuminate media
history. It is an approach pioneered by Kevin Rockett, founding chairman of
the Irish Film Institute, whose essay on film censorship in Ireland comes
first. This issue draws together research from scholars working in
universities in both the southern and northern parts of Ireland, the
mainland of the UK and in the USA. All are to some extent pioneers in a
rapidly developing field...'

Contact Point...

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/frameloader.html?http://www.tandf.co.uk/jour
nals/carfax/01439685.html

Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television

Volume 20 Number 3
Issue Aug 2000

Introduction 277
Nicholas J. Cull
Protecting the Family and the Nation: the official censorship of American
cinema in Ireland, 1923-1954 283
Kevin Rockett
Music Hall Dope and British Propaganda? Cultural identity and early
broadcasting in Ireland 301
Martin McLoone
'Purely Sinn Fein Propaganda': the banning of Ourselves Alone (1936) 317
John Hill
Projecting the Past: historical documentary in Ireland 335
Harvey O'Brien
Philip Donnellan, Ireland and Dissident Documentary 351
Lance Pettitt
Addressing the Eye in Ireland: Thaddeus O'Sullivan's On a Paving Stone
Mounted (1978) 367
Cheryl Temple Herr
Punk on Celluloid: John Davis' Shell Shock Rock (1979) 375
Agnès Maillot
The Policing of Cinema: troubled film exhibition in Northern Ireland 385
K. J. Donnelly
Advertising for Peace: the state and political advertising in Northern
Ireland, 1988-1998 397
Alan Finlayson; Eamonn Hughes
The Ballykissangelization of Ireland 413
Ruth Barton
The Banning of Titanic: a study of British postwar film censorship in
Germany 427
Robert E. Peck
1922 and All That: the inner war in feature films of independence 445
Robert Cole
Book Reviews 453

From: Cymru66[at]aol.com
Subject: Re: Ir-D Merseypride 3

May I ask for more details, please ie. Full title, confirmation of the
publisher's name, ISBN etc. If the book is part of a series, does the title
of the series appear on the cover of the book over the book title and the
author's name? These points may appear pernickety but the latter format
caused problems when looking for Paul O'Leary's book.
Best,
John Hickey

The publisher has supplied us with the following information...

P.O'S.

Merseypride: Essays in Liverpool Exceptionalism by John Belchem

Once the second city of empire, now descended by seemingly irreversible
economic and demographic decline into European Union Objective One status,
Liverpool defies historical categorisation. Located at the intersection of
competing cultural, economic and geo-political formations, it stands outside
the main narrative frameworks of modern British history. What was it that
established Liverpool as different or apart? The essays in this book show
how a sense of apartness has always been crucial to Liverpool?s identity.
While repudiated by some as an external imposition, an unmerited stigma
originating from the days of the slave trade or the Irish famine,
Liverpool's ?otherness' has been upheld (and inflated) in self-referential
myth, a ?Merseypride? that has shown considerable ingenuity in adjusting to
the city?s changing fortunes.

Among the topics considered are Liverpool?s problematic projection of itself
through history and heritage; the belated emergence of ?scouse? as cultural
badge and signifier; the origins and dominance of Toryism in popular
political culture, at odds with present-day perceptions of Merseyside
militancy; and an investigation of the crucial sites -- the Irish pub and
the Catholic parish -- where the Liverpool-Irish identity was constructed,
contested and continued, seemingly immune to the normal processes of ethnic
fade. The final section of the book offers comparative methodological and
theoretical perspectives that embrace North America, Australia and other
European ?second cities?.

236pp. plus 8pp. b/w plates and 6 tables
£27.95/US$46.95 h/b, £11.95/US$19.95 p/b
ISBN 0-85323-715-8 h/b, 0-85323-725-5 p/b
Liverpool University Press, December 2000

Direct orders, except USA/Canada: Marston Book Services, www.marston.co.uk
Direct orders USA/Canada: International Specialized Book Services,
www.isbs.com

PART ONE

1. Liverpool?s story is the world?s glory

2. ?An accent exceedingly rare?: Scouse and the inflexion of class

PART TWO: IRISH LIVERPOOL

3. Ribbonism, nationalism and the Irish pub

4. Charity, ethnicity and the Catholic parish

5. Micks on the make on the Mersey

PART THREE: TORY TOWN

6. Protectionism, paternalism and Protestantism: popular Toryism in early
Victorian Liverpool

PART FOUR: COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES

7. Ethnicity, migration and labour history

8. ?Grandes villes?: Liverpool, Lyon and Munich

Liverpool University Press

- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit

Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/

Personal Fax National 0870 284 1580
Fax International +44 870 284 1580

Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Department of Interdisciplinary Human Studies
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England

Michael Smith's book about Tom Crean is now being noticed in the British
press...

An Unsung Hero: Tom Crean - Antarctic Survivor by Michael Smith is published
by The Collins Press, price £20 in UK

I don't know if the book has been noticed elsewhere.

Crean's story is an extraordinary one - hitherto known only to people who
entered an oddly named pub in Kerry, the South Pole Inn. One of our themes,
I suppose, is the way that 'The Irish' are seen by elitist, astigmatic,
'orientalist' eyes - in ways that stress oddness, flamboyance... Tom
Crean's story epitomises what I take to be the real Irish style - of quietly
getting on with the job.

I thought it worth letting the Ir-D membership have - as Ir-D Tom Crean 2,
following this - an item which appeared in The Irish Times a little while
ago. This is very much based on Michael Smith's own articles, and takes up
some of these points.

P.O'S.

- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit

Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/

Personal Fax National 0870 284 1580
Fax International +44 870 284 1580

Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Department of Interdisciplinary Human Studies
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England

From The Irish Times

Tuesday, October 17, 2000

The unsung iceman

Why has a Kerryman, Tom Crean, who accompanied both Scott and Shackleton on
polar expeditions, been largely ignored? It was probably because he was
Irish and born on the wrong side of the ski tracks, writes Michael Smith ,
author of the first biography of Crean
Few stories of adventure and survival against the odds capture the
imagination more easily than the remarkable tales of exploration to the
wastes of Antarctica. Names such as Shackleton and Scott are still familiar,
a century after their journeys in icy waters - the equivalent then to,
today, taking a rocket to Jupiter.

And the full saga of the men who mapped the Antarctic is impossible to
relate without applauding the unique contribution of Irishman, Tom Crean.

Crean, a Kerryman, was an unsung hero of polar exploration and yet his
inspiring and quite remarkable story has remained largely untold for the
best part of a century.

He was a poorly-educated farmer's son from the Dingle Peninsula who rose
from obscurity to be at the centre of the dramatic events which shaped the
early history of exploration to the last untamed continent on earth.

He sailed on three of the four famous British expeditions to the Antarctic
and spent more time exploring on the ice than either of the more celebrated
figures, Scott and Shackleton. He was also one of the few explorers to a
company both Scott and Shackleton, who were bitter rivals.

And he outlived them both.

The story of Tom Crean is that of an ordinary man who did extraordinary
things. But until now no book had been written about him and precious little
information about his action-packed life can be found in the archives. This
book took three years of research in Ireland, Britain, New Zealand and North
America, interviews with key people such as Crean's daughters and Broke
Evans, the son of a man whose life Crean saved, and sifting through 100
books, private letters, official records and an endless chain of archive
material.

Crean was born in 1887 on a remote hillside farm near the village of
Anascaul in Co Kerry. By coincidence, he shared a birthday with another
great adventurer, Sir Edmund Hillary, conqueror of Everest. At the age of
15, Crean ran away from home and enlisted in Queen Victoria's navy and, by
chance, found himself stationed in New Zealand around Christmas, 1901. Also
in dock was Captain Scott's Discovery, busily taking on supplies before
embarking on the first concerted attempt to explore the Antarctic
continent - Terra Australis Incognita or the unknown southern land.

Shortly before Discovery's departure, a truculent sailor attacked an officer
and fled, leaving Scott with a vacancy. Crean volunteered to fill the gap.
He spent the next two years with Discovery, serving a polar apprenticeship
which was the basic grounding for his later exploits. In 1910, when Scott
was ready to launch another assault on the South Pole, he readily recruited
Crean to accompany him.

On this ill-fated journey, Crean dragged a sledge 750 miles across the ice
and was among the last three men to see Scott alive. He left Scott barely
150 miles from the South Pole and Crean wept openly at the disappointment of
being denied a place in history. Some 10 months later, he was among the
searchers who buried Scott's dead body in the ice. He wept again.

Tom Crean's return journey to basecamp ranks as probably the finest feat of
individual heroism from the entire age of polar exploration, but it was
inevitably eclipsed by the tragedy of Scott's doomed polar party and was to
become a forgotten chapter in history. Crean and his two colleagues - Bill
Lashly and Lieut Edward Evans - faced a 750-mile trek to safely. Only Evans
could navigate and before long he succumbed to scurvy and lay dying. He
ordered Crean and Lashly to leave him behind and save themselves, but they
refused and dragged him on the sledge for as long as their strength would
hold out.

When they could pull no further, Crean volunteered to march the final 35
miles to bring rescue. He had already walked for three and a half months,
1,500 miles. He carried no tent or sleeping bag and his only food was two
sticks of chocolate and three biscuits.

He walked, stumbled and crawled for 18 hours and somehow reached help. Dog
teams raced out to Evans's aid. Crean was eventually given the Albert Medal,
the highest award for gallantry.

Only a few months after returning from Scott's ill-fated expedition, Crean
was heading back to the Antarctic, on board Endurance with Shackleton.
Theirs was to become the greatest story of survival to emerge from the
entire era of polar exploration and Crean, once again, was at the centre of
momentous events.

Endurance was crushed by ice in the Weddell Sea and the 28-man party was
stranded for months on a drifting iceflow. After steering their lifeboats to
the uninhabited Elephant Island, they decided that six men should set out in
the 22-foot open boat, the James Caird, 800 miles across the violent
Southern Ocean to South Georgia to bring rescue.

Crean begged Shackleton to take him on the hazardous crossing and 17 days
later, when South Georgia was reached, only three of the six were still
standing - Shackleton, the peerless navigator Worsley and Tom Crean.

But the men had made landfall on the "wrong" side of the island and rescue
lay at a whaling station across the unexplored glaciers and peaks of South
Georgia. With only light clothing, sparse food and a carpenter's axe,
Shackleton, Worsley and Tom Crean made the first crossing of South Georgia
and finally saved their stranded comrades on Elephant Island. It was Crean's
last act as an explorer.

When he retired from the navy, he returned to Anascaul where he married,
raised a family and opened a pub called the South Pole Inn, which survives
to this day. His neighbours affectionately called him Tom the Pole. But his
story has since lain largely undisturbed. While Scotts and Shackleton earned
huge recognition for their efforts, Crean's life remained under wraps.

This was due in part to Crean's own background. Most of the characters on
these early expeditions were middleclass products of English public schools,
universities or officer-training colleges. Keeping detailed diaries and
writing volumninous letters came easily to these people. But Tom Crean came
from the other side of the ski tracks. He was barely literate and therefore
left little behind. There are no diaries and only a few short and
poorly-crafted letters.

Another reason for the lack of coverage lies in Irish history. When Crean
returned home in 1920, Ireland was slipping towards war and any association
with the British was deeply unpopular. Although Crean was no political
figure, he wisely chose to keep his head down and refused to discuss his
extraordinary exploits. He never gave an interview.

But the world moves on, and it is now possible to assess Crean's outstanding
contribution to Polar exploration more freely and give him the recognition
he rightfully deserves. It also allows us to plug an important gap in the
enduring history of Polar exploration. An Unsung Hero: Tom Crean - Antarctic
Survivor by Michael Smith is published by The Collins Press, price £20 in UK

From: Marion Casey
Subject: Re: Ir-D Tom Crean 1


Hello Paddy & all,

Thanks for posting the notice of Smith's book, which I only heard about
a week ago and immediately ordered a copy for my mother for Christmas.
She was born in Annascaul in 1931 and remembers Tom Crean giving her
pennies when she was a child. Here in New York and back in the village
during the summers I grew up on stories of Crean, Scott and Shackelton.
My cousins ran the South Pole Inn for years and now our townland
neighbor is the owner. Annascaul is a little place, eclipsed by Tralee
to the east and Dingle to the west, but curiously it also produced the
sculptor Jerome Connor whose work includes Robert Emmet (1917) in
Stephen's Green, Dublin, the Lusitania Memorial (1936) in Cobh, the
Eire Memorial (1932)in Merrion Square Park, Dublin and the Angels of
the Battlefield (Nuns Memorial, 1924)in Washington, DC.

Best wishes,
Marion

Department of History
New York University

- ----- Original Message -----
From: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Date: Wednesday, December 6, 2000 5:07 am
Subject: Ir-D Tom Crean 1

>
> Michael Smith's book about Tom Crean is now being noticed in the
> Britishpress...
>
> An Unsung Hero: Tom Crean - Antarctic Survivor by Michael Smith is
> publishedby The Collins Press, price £20 in UK
>
> I don't know if the book has been noticed elsewhere.
>
> Crean's story is an extraordinary one - hitherto known only to
> people who
> entered an oddly named pub in Kerry, the South Pole Inn. One of
> our themes,
> I suppose, is the way that 'The Irish' are seen by elitist,
> astigmatic,'orientalist' eyes - in ways that stress oddness,
> flamboyance... Tom
> Crean's story epitomises what I take to be the real Irish style -
> of quietly
> getting on with the job.
>
> I thought it worth letting the Ir-D membership have - as Ir-D Tom
> Crean 2,
> following this - an item which appeared in The Irish Times a
> little while
> ago. This is very much based on Michael Smith's own articles, and
> takes up
> some of these points.
>
> P.O'S.
>

Forwarded for information...

Ambitious. But in very early stages...

P.O'S.

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