Remember all those old Guinness poster adverts? You know, the one's with an ostrich/kangaroo/ostrich/seal/toucan telling you how a pint of the black stuff is good for you? They look great, but obviously advertising standards have changed somewhat and this kind of statement would hardly be tolerated nowadays.

But the advertising heads at our most famous export are nothing if not crafty and while today's campaigns aren't so blatant, they are, nonetheless, still pointing towards the 'goodness of Guinness'. Case in point, the campaign from a few years back that recounted the tale of able seaman Tom Crean, a native Irishman, who successfully completed a 35 mile solo walk across Antarctica to save the life of one of his fellow explorers. In this version of the story, a brooding Crean comes close to giving up, only to be spurred on by the memory of drinking a pint of Guinness with his friends back home. He would return to be a publican later in life, following on from his adventures, although it would be some years before his achievements would be recounted to the world and his immense contribution to those early Antarctica explorations rightfully noted in the history books.

Unlike the names Captain Robert Scott and Sir Earnest Shackleton which are synonymous with the race to reach the South Pole, Crean who served under both commanders, and returned to the Antarctic no less then three times, has remained a largely relatively unknown quantity and a unsung hero.

So it's fitting that he should become the sole subject of a critically lauded theatre production which has become as well traveled as the great man himself. Playwright and actor Aiden Dooley is making up for the neglect by putting Crean center stage in his compelling, show Tom Crean - Antarctic Explorer. The play presents a garrulous, quick-witted and boisterous Crean recalling his adventures under the command of Scott and Shackleton. The stories range from the pragmatic to the astonishing, recounting tales such as the hazardous 800-mile crossing of the Southern Ocean to South Georgia he undertook in the tiny James Caird to the final act of the Endurance Expedition and the subsequent rescue of 22 men on Elephant Island.

"The reason behind this production is purely commission based," says Dooley, who's reason for taking on this show belie the passion he has subsequently developed for the subject. "As a character actor I was getting history work and I was approached about doing a 30-minute show to compliment an exhibition at the London's National Maritime Museum on Crean, which allowed me to unearth this Irish guy of whom very little was known. There were really no known recollections of this individual which was down to the political environment of that time.

"The officers and scientists, such as Scott and Shackleton were mostly these middle-class, men who were well-educated and who also left behind an diaries, letters, paintings, photographs and books. But Tom Crean was this poorly educated son of a farmer in Kerry so he did not leave much evidence behind. He was also a victim of the political landscape of the time in Ireland. When he returned to Kerry, Ireland was fighting its war of independence with the British and one of his brothers, a policeman, was murdered at around this time."