Tim Foley's Blog

Whatever plans the new owners have in mind, the South Pole Inn remains the hub of pilgrimage for Tom Crean fans worldwide. I believe the place should retain the authenticity of its era, as it currently does, and I hope it retains the same style and layout, structural issues notwithstanding.

The post The South Pole Inn — Tom Crean’s Pub: Full History and Current Status appeared first on Tom Crean Book - 'Crean - The Extraordinary Life Of An Irish Hero'.

Tom Crean and the Elephant Island Rescue Endurance Expedition Tom Crean and the Elephant Island Rescue By Tim Foley April-September 1916 9 min read The Elephant Island rescue, illustrated for Tom The Mighty Explorer. Four rescue attempts. Three desperate months. Twenty-two stranded men, and not one life lost. This is the complete story of the […]

The post Tom Crean and the Elephant Island Rescue appeared first on Tom Crean Book - 'Crean - The Extraordinary Life Of An Irish Hero'.

Over the years I've gathered a large collection of Tom Crean images. Among them I've tracked down a few rare photographs, and it's only through the recent, rapid advancement in technology that I've been able to restore them

The post Rare and Restored Photos of Tom Crean: The Real Visual History appeared first on Tom Crean Book - 'Crean - The Extraordinary Life Of An Irish Hero'.

In the annals of Tom Crean's remarkable life, there is perhaps no single year more consequential, more dramatic or more revealing of the extraordinary circumstances that shaped his destiny than 1914.

The post Tom Crean in 1914 — Churchill, Stackhouse, Shackleton and the Lusitania appeared first on Tom Crean Book - 'Crean - The Extraordinary Life Of An Irish Hero'.

There are things about this story that remain frustrating, and I won't pretend otherwise. The campaign was written out of the official narrative by those who should have known better. The supporters of the Ireland Should Honour Tom Crean campaign — all 50,000+ of them — deserved to be acknowledged, and they weren't.

The post How Ireland Finally Honoured Tom Crean | RV Tom Crean appeared first on Tom Crean Book - 'Crean - The Extraordinary Life Of An Irish Hero'.

Back then words such as ‘traitor’ and phrases like ‘taking the kings shilling’ didn’t sit right with what I had discovered about Tom Crean. Those accusations also displayed a lack of knowledge about the era in which families like the Creans and their neighbours, were living a hand to mouth existence and had to work relentlessly to earn enough to cover their rents whilst desperate to avoid eviction.

The post Why did Tom Crean join the British Navy? appeared first on Tom Crean Book - 'Crean - The Extraordinary Life Of An Irish Hero'.

Knowing, as I now do, the immense preparatory efforts that went into it prior to publication, Tadhg's account is best defined not as a labour of love, but as a labour-intensive work of love.

The post Tadhg Gahan Tom Crean appeared first on Tom Crean Book - 'Crean - The Extraordinary Life Of An Irish Hero'.

The man who brought Tom Crean’s story to life In 2017, when I first began researching Tom Crean’s life in depth for the biography I was to later write, one of the first things I wanted to discover was information about the person who first introduced me to Tom Crean’s story. Through my father, who […]

The post Tadhg Gahan appeared first on Tom Crean Book - 'Crean - The Extraordinary Life Of An Irish Hero'.

When Tom Crean met Winston Churchill On the 23rd January 1914, Chief Petty Officer Tom Crean was assigned to HMS Enchantress. It was a time when the Kerryman who, 21 years earlier found it necessary to leave his homeland, would be present on the decks of the Admiralty yacht which was used predominantly as the […]

The post When Tom Crean encountered Winston Churchill appeared first on Tom Crean Book - 'Crean - The Extraordinary Life Of An Irish Hero'.

On this day the Change platform campaign from which we sought for Ireland To Honour Tom Crean, declared a historic victory with the following post: After eleven years of operating a campaign for Ireland to honour Tom Crean, five of which were spent pestering people to sign this petition, today, on the eve of the […]

The post Tom Crean Campaign – Declaration of Victory appeared first on Tom Crean Book - 'Crean - The Extraordinary Life Of An Irish Hero'.