An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir July/August 2016 www.dfmagazine.ie 20 | by SGT WAYNE FITZGERALD PHotoS by SGT MICK BURKE S pike Island, with a land area of 104 acres, sitting in the heart of Cork Harbour, south of Cobh, has a long history of incarceration and punishment, and is often thought of as Ireland's Alcatraz. Some evidence indicates that the island was inhabited by monks who founded a monastery there in 635AD. In the 1770s, during the American War of Independence, Cork Harbour replaced Kinsale as a Royal Navy base and a small fortifi- cation, Fort Westmorland, was built on Spike Island in 1779. Because of the island's strategic impor tance the British began work in 1804 to build the present, much larger for t, also called For t Westmoreland. It took approximately 60 years to complete the new structure, which covered approximately 27 acres, with six bastions connected by rampar ts, flanking gal- leries, and a dry moat. Between 1847 and 1883 Spike also became a depot from where convicts were transported to the far corners of the globe. Ap- proximately 1,500 prisoners also died and were buried on the island. Spike's most famous inmate was the Young Irelander, John Mitchel (after whom the fort is now named), who was transport- ed from the island to the penal colony in Bermuda in 1848. In 1916 the German crew of the scuttled Aud were detained briefly on the island before being transferred to a POW camp in Britain, and in 1921 during the War of Independence approxi- mately 700 republican prisoners were held there, some of whom carried out two daring escapes. Under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, Spike Island remained under British control and remained so until it was handed over on 11th July 1938. An Taoiseach Éamonn de Valera presided over the brief ceremony, which saw the tricolour fly above the island for the first time. The army and later the Naval Service garrisoned the island until 1985, and between 1972 and 1982 the fort was also used as a military detention centre. From 1985 to 2004 the fort was used as a male civilian prison by the Irish Prison Service. A new chapter in the history of Spike Island began in July 2010 when the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform transferred the is- land to Cork County Council with a view to transforming it into a unique tourism, heritage and recreational resource. The fort has been open to the public since then and recently Cork County Council set up the Spike Island Development Company to manage and develop the island. On 9th June 2016, An Cosantóir visited Spike Island and Fort Mitchel, having received an invi- tation from the manag- er, retired RDF Comman- dant, Tom O'Neill, who also served there with the Prison Service. Tom met us on the quayside and after a short brief led the way and Fort Mitchel Mick O'Connor in Mitchel Hall

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