Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton looks set to make it to cult status when two big-budget films hit the cinemas. And his hometown in Co Kildare is determined not to be left behind in the rush to capitalise on the explorer's life and expeditions.
In a race worthy of Scott's and Amundsen's battle to take the South Pole, Russell Crowe and Kenneth Brannagh will be hoping that their rival biopics (Endurance and South) will manage to cash in on this latest historical hero. Shackleton's life has already been the subject of highly successful exhibitions in Britain and the US recently and memorabilia from his trips to the Antarctic have been commanding upwards of £10,000 each at auction.
Keen to promote Shackleton as a Kildare man, the Athy Heritage Centre last weekend held the inaugural Ernest Shackleton Autumn School in the town. The centre recently added to its impressive permanent Shackleton exhibition by spending £15,000 on a number of items at Christie's in London including the explorer's cigarette case and an antique biscuit left over from one of his missions. The autumn school included a lecture by Jonathan Shackleton, a cousin of Sir Ernest, who himself is planning an expedition to Antarctica this winter.
Shackleton was born in the village of Kilkea, about four miles from Athy in 1874. Ernest Shackleton's Kildare Quaker roots are thought to have greatly influenced the way he led his crew through some horrendous hardships at sea.
In 1915 Shackleton's heroic effort to reach the South Pole in his ship Endurance ended in failure when the vessel got stuck and eventually sank in the middle of a powerful ice flow. For more than a year he kept his stranded 26-man crew alive before they were rescued.
Shackleton's sophisticated methods of keeping morale high through subtle psychology and encouragement have now marked him as something of a business guru in the US.