Athy Shackleton experts give talks at New York event
Kevin Kenny of Athy's Shackleton Museum giving a talk at the Shackleton 150 event in New York
IN HONOUR of Ernest Shackleton’s 150th birthday, the New York Explorer’s Club held a ‘Shackleton 150’ event, inviting Kevin Kenny and Seamus Taaffe from Athy’s Shackleton Museum to the event to give talks and celebrate the Kildare-born explorer.
The Explorers Club, which was founded in 1904, is a professional society that promotes scientific exploration and field study, and has served as a meeting point for explorers and scientists worldwide.
The event, which had tickets listed from $100 to $250, had lectures scheduled from 9am to 4pm which was a mix of talks, panel discussions, and visual presentations of archival content.
Kevin Kenny spoke in the morning about Shackleton in a talk called ‘Shackleton by Numbers’ and Seamus Taaffe spoke after lunch about Shackleton’s Irish connection in a talk called ‘Shackleton, the Irish Perspective’.
Kevin said: “The event sold out really quickly. The attendance was a total mix with a lot of Irish-Americans, young to middle-aged women and people interested in science.
“There was a lot of interest in the Shackleton Museum. Our talks were very well received, there was a great response. We certainly feel that it’s done a lot for Shackleton in Athy.”
After a full day of lectures, attendees and speakers joined for a Shackleton reception and dinner party in the evening.
Kevin said: “We ate Irish stew for dinner, and that went down great!”
Kevin added: “We met a lot of interesting people there. We were also joined by Enda O’Coineen and the Ernest Shackleton Appreciation Society.”
Both men believe that this event was an important step towards the launch of the Shackleton Museum expected this summer.
