Annascaul mission to give
ANNASCAUL put on a walking, talking, singing and dancing celebration of the life and achievements of Antarctic explorer Tom Crean at the weekend with a festival that, founder Eileen Percival believes, can only continue to grow.
The festival got underway on Friday night with a relaxed gathering in what was Crean’s bedroom but the following morning was an entirely more challenging affair as 200 people set out in less than kind weather on the 19-mile Tom Crean Endurance Walk through the mountains of West Kerry.
The walk, organised by Annascaul Walking Club, started at 8am and Dingle Adventure Race organiser Noel O’Leary was the first home, arriving into Annascaul at noon. Other walkers straggled behind by a long distance and some even got stranded in the heavy mist, but they were soon found and led safely back to base where walkers were presented with memorial medals by Eileen Percival and Crean’s grandson, Enda O’Brien.
On Saturday evening Crean’s story was interpreted through dance in an eclectic piece of theatre co-written by Eileen Percival’s son, Martin, and Máire Clerkin with Michael Sherin and Dingle dance supremo David Geaney providing the fancy footwork. On Sunday, Crean was remembered in a more poignant way with a memorial walk around his local haunts, followed by a wreath-laying at his grave in Ballinacourty Cemetery. Tom Crean’s daughter, Mary Crean-O’Brien attended the ceremony and it was the highlight of the weekend for Eileen, who founded the festival four years ago with the dual aim of honouring her childhood hero and promoting tourism in Annascaul.
Eileen, who took over Crean’s pub, The South Pole Inn, when she returned to Ireland in 1999 after spending 39 years in England, was delighted with the weekend which fulfilled the dual role of raising Crean’s profile and