We made a spur of the moment decision to visit Spike Island. Les found tickets online for the ferry boat that would take us and we had about 15 minutes to get on board. This ended up being a very interesting part of our day.
Spike Island began as a monastery in
about AD 635. Although the ruins of a church were reported on the island in 1774 and
maps of the period show the same, no definite trace of the monastery has
been found. The British army
created Fort Mitchel there in the late 1700s and brought in tons of
soil, covering where the church may have once been.
Once we arrived on the island we were greeted by our tour guide, Erin. Her grandmother lived on Spike Island as a child so her connection there was strong. Families of both British and Irish soldiers lived on the island in homes outside the fort. We also learned that Spike Island is approximately 10 times larger than Alcatraz, it was also a prison much longer.
The hills around the fort and prison were beautiful, but once we stepped into the first building everything changed. The Punishment Block consisted of twenty eight solitary confinement cells and housed the
‘Penal Class’, considered the most dangerous prisoners. They were
heavily chained and clothed in black from head to toe, with a veil
hiding all but their eyes.
Some of those imprisoned in the ‘Block’ were reportedly driven insane by the inhumane conditions. The halls are eerie with their voices.
Every once in a while I was startled by an inmate...
I was happy to step out into the fresh air. We decided we needed a coffee break before viewing the rest.
We went inside Mitchel Hall completed in 1851 by convict and civilian labor. The central hall was used as an Anglican chapel until the
prisoners left in the late 1800s. This attractive building with its
ornate facade saw its central hall used for dances by the island
residents on Friday evenings, be they the families of soldiers or of
prison officers.
Today the building houses temporary art exhibitions and holds concerts in
its former Anglican church, while the adjoining rooms hold an auditorium
and a Spike Island social history exhibition. The ground floor
‘Independence’ exhibition in the north side of the building tells the
story of the path to Irish freedom from 1914 to 1921. There are also
rooms dedicated to the Irish Army, Naval Service and Air Corps.
I had picked up another book before our trip, this time about Ireland. Castle on the Rise by Kristy Cambron is a split time novel. It starts in modern times, but also includes Dublin in 1916 and the Rebellion of 1798, eventually tying them all together. The Easter Rising of 1916 is a significant part of Irish history that we would hear about in each of the three places we visited while in Ireland.
After 700 years of British occupation and many failed uprisings, Ireland began its successful path to freedom in 1912. Home rule was to be granted to Ireland, seen by many as the first step
to Independence, but it was opposed by a Protestant majority in Northern
Ireland. The threat of civil war was very real until the outbreak of
World War I in 1914 put all plans on hold. While many Irishmen fought on
the British side others saw English distraction as a chance to fight
for Irish freedom, and so a rising was planned in 1916. It was to fail
and many of its leaders were put to death. Others were imprisoned on Spike Island.
In 1919 the Irish War of Independence broke out and it was a bloody,
brutal affair. The massively outnumbered Irish forces took on the
British army using hit and run tactics, avoiding the type of head on,
large scales movements that cost many lives in 1916. The war dragged on
for 2 years with many casualties and eventually Britain was forced into
talks that led to the signing of the Anglo-Irish treaty.
In 1921 the island was to hold 1400 Irish War of Independence prisoners
in a huge internment camp. Many of the men were simply lifted off the
streets and imprisoned without fair trial, although the British
intelligence was good and mostly accurate.
Ireland secured freedom from Britain in 1921. There were
difficult conditions attached to the truce which were the painful price
of freedom. The most famous was the separation of Northern Ireland and
its six counties into a region loyal to the United Kingdom, but another
concession insisted upon by the British was the retention of what became
known as the ‘Treaty ports’ at Bere Island, Lough Swilly and Spike
Island.
A trade war broke out between Ireland and Britain during the 1930s and Ireland's President, Éamon de Valera, negotiated a settlement. This included the return of Spike Island and its fort from British to Irish control.
July 11, 1938 was set as the handover date. An Irish army contingent sailed to the island and saw the British flag lowered. Spike Island remained an Irish navy base until 1985.
Spike Island became a prison once again in 1985 - holding over 120 civilian prisoners. Many had been
convicted of the crime of ‘Joyriding’, stealing a car and driving it
around dangerously. These were mostly young men. On August 31st things got out of control. The prisoners had returned to their dorms for the
night, and all was calm. But an argument quickly escalated, and
suddenly the prisoners were escaping from their dorms in numbers. A
major riot was underway, and the prison would never be the same again.
The prison officers had to flee the fortress for their safety, as the
prisoners broke into the maintenance stores and armed themselves with
makeshift weapons. The prison officers managed to make it to a boat,
but the island residents had a scary situation when they found the
prisoners between them and the island’s pier. They negotiated safe
passage and waited in a hut for a boat to take them to safety.
The prisoners set fire to some of the buildings. By the end of the next afternoon, the prisoners surrendered, and the riot
was over. Fortunately no one was seriously injured in the riot, but
the beautiful ‘A’ block which had stood since 1820 was burned out, as
was the west side of the ‘B’ block.
There was news footage in the exhibit area and it was strange to think
that this event happened after I graduated from high school!
We finally made it outside the fort to the Chapel Yard. It was home to families, the British Army school, and a Roman Catholic Chapel. We could have spent several more hours on the island but our time was up.
And just across the water - Cobh's Colman Cathedral:
The ride back to Cobh was quicker as the tide was coming in. We decided to eat pizza at Alfredo's that night instead of going to the main dining room. From there it was just one deck down to gelato. They had the best strawberry gelato we had ever tasted!
