The Shackleton Autumn School is pleased to confirm the provisional details of the 2018 Autumn School
Friday 26th October
Official Opening & Exhibition Launch by Her Excellency, Ambassador Else Berit Eikeland, the Norwegian Ambassador to Ireland
7.30pm
Book Launch
8.00pm
in Athy Heritage Centre – Museum.
In association with UCL publishers, the Shackleton Autumn School is pleased to welcome back to Athy Shane McCorristine for the launch of his latest work The Spectral Arctic: A History of Ghosts and Dreams in Polar Exploration. Through new readings of archival documents, exploration narratives and fictional texts, author Shane reveals the hidden stories of dreaming and haunted explorers, of frozen mummies, of rescue balloons, visits to Inuit shamans, and of the entranced female clairvoyants who travelled to the Arctic in search of Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition.
Exhibition
Daily Exhibitions – Athy Heritage Centre – Museum
Saturday & Sunday 10am – 5pm
Bank Holiday Monday 10am – 2pm
10.00am – 5.00pm – “Exploring Shackleton”
The exhibition devised and created by the Fram Museum, Oslo focuses on the life and expeditions of Sir Ernest Shackleton. The exhibition is complemented by artefacts from the Museum’s own and private collections.
10.00am – 5.00pm – “On Thin Ice”
Held in conjunction with the Norwegian Embassy, Dublin the exhibition documents the Norwegian Young Sea Ice Expedition 2015 with stunning images from this unique expedition.
Saturday, 27th October
Lecture Series Athy Heritage Centre – Museum
10.00am “Lessons from the Arctic: How Amundsen won the Race to the South Pole”
Geir klover
Admission €10
10.50am TEA/COFFEE
11.20 “What the Sea Floor at the Top and Bottom of the World can tell use about the great ice sheets”
Kelly Hogan
Admission €10
12.10 “Solving famous Shipwreck Mysteries”
David Mearns
Admission €10
1pm LUNCH
2.30pm “The Extraordinary Four Antarctic Winters of Argentine Jose Manuel Moneta during the 1920s”
Bob Headland
Admission €10
3.20pm TEA/COFFEE
3.50pm “Conor O’Brien: Patriot, Sailor and Adventurer”
Jim McAdam
Admission €10
4.40pm ‘Icebreakers’
A series of short presentations on topics relevant to the Shackleton Autumn School, presented by those with a passion for their subject.
Admission Free
Dinner
8.00pm Autumn School Dinner in Clanard Court Hotel, Athy Tickets €40
Sunday, 28th October Athy Heritage Centre – Museum
Lecture Series
10.00am “Kathleen Shackleton, Ernest’s Arctic Sister”
Sharon Greene Admission €10
10.50am TEA/COFFEE
11.20am “In Shackleton’s Wake”
Arved Fuchs
Admission €10
12.10pm “Isolation; Working and Wintering in Antarctica”
Mike Brian
Admission €10
1pm LUNCH
2.30pm ‘William Speirs Bruce: Forgotten Polar Hero’
Isobel Williams & John Dudeney
Admission €10
Film Athy Heritage Centre – Museum
3.30pm Ice and the Sky
This documentary follows the story of the French Scientist Claude Lorius who has participated in 22 expeditions to the polar region since the 1960’s. Claude is a long time campaigner about global warming and in this elegiac film he reflects on his scientific endeavours including his key work in ice cores. The film was directed by Luc Jacquet best known as the Oscar wining director of March of the Penguins.
Admission €10
Cultural Evening Athy Arts Centre
8.30pm ‘Shackleton’s Carpenter’
This one man show, written by Gail Louw, tells the story of Harry McNish, the carpenter on Shackleton’s ill fated ship, Endurance.
Performed by Malcolm Rennie and directed by Tony Milner
Admission €10
Monday, 29th October 2018
Field Trip Assemble at The Heritage Centre – Museum
10.00am Bus tour through Shackleton country. A Visit to Ballitore and the home of Mary Leadbeater, writer and ancestor of Ernest Shackleton and Quaker Meeting House.
Fare €10