Almost. Global warming, time and looters are conspiring against the continued survival of the huts, which were placed on the World Monuments Fund's list of the 100 most endangered sites two years ago. Now, a major conservation project is underway, spearheaded by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust and its New Zealand sister trust. Most of the funds so far raised have come from New Zealand, the nearest territory to the huts . . . Antarctica is effectively an administrative no-man's land . . . and the starting point for most expeditions to the hostile territory.

The British government has flatly refused to even part-fund the project, on the basis that the huts are not on British territory. If they continue to refuse, the relics will be lost. For Shackleton's many Irish admirers, that eventuality would seem almost criminally negligent.

"These men are in the pantheon of heroes, " said Seamus Taaffe of the Shackleton Autumn School, held annually at the Athy Heritage Centre and Museum, close to the explorer's birthplace. "They were on British imperial expeditions, so it seems only right that the British government should contribute to conserving their memories." However, there may be an alternative; "there is a link to ourselves with Shackleton and Tom Crean, " said Taaffe. "So maybe we should give something . . . if nothing else, to embarrass the British government."