Irish Adventurers In Pole Position

It was a bit more than just the 'luck of the Irish' that propelled four record-making Irish explorers into history last night.

In becoming the first all-Irish expedition to reach the South Pole, the Beyond Endurance team led by adventurer Pat Falvey (50), had trained, prepared and finally been fully committed to the achievement of their goal - although a bit of luck did help too - when after a gruelling 58 days on the ice, the four-person team reached the US Antarctic Research Station at the pole at 7.28pm Irish time on Tuesday - with just one day's food rations left.

The team, which included Dr Clare O'Leary (35), the first woman to climb Mount Everest and as of this week, the first woman to walk overland to the elusive South Pole, was hand-picked too, with the other members being Shaun Menzies (42) and Jonathon Bradshaw (36).

Leader Mr Falvey described the feeling on reaching their goal after such an arduous journey as "phenomenal" but admitted it was the hardest expedition he had undertaken out of over 60, including two successful attempts on Mount Everest.

"We are here and everyone is well," said an emotional Mr Falvey, speaking by satellite phone from the ice.

"We had 14 days of white-out, where we could see nothing in front of us. We had gale force winds and snowstorms but eventually the Antarctic opened up and showed us, that instead of a hell, it could be heaven on earth."

The team set out on November 1, following closely in the footsteps of Irish explorers Ernest Shackleton and Tom Crean, who attempted to reach the pole almost a century ago as part of the Terra Nova expedition but had to give up with just 180km to go because their food supplies were too low.

President Mary McAleese congratulated the team, and said: "Occurring one century after fellow Irishman Ernest Shackleton's first attempt on the pole, the expedition's achievement is particularly poignant."

(BMcC)