Spike Island E-Book

Michael Martin

• Herausgeber: THP Ireland
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Seitenzahl: 115

Beschreibung

The dominant star shaped fortress on Spike Island testifies to it's strategic importance in the once heavily fortified bastion of British military might that was Cork Harbour. Beneath and around this edifice however lies the story of an island steeped in extensive Irish heritage that stretches further back into the mists of Irelands past beyond the arrival of the Normans and on through to the darkest period of Irish history. From an island of ecclesiastical retreat and contemplation to a dark and godforsaken destination of victims of Ireland's Great Famine, Spike Island has been a part of two contrasting periods in Irish history. The era of saints and scholars during which Spike was described as a Holy Island is set against a later backdrop of famine, disease and death and the dark judicial practice that saw men and boys transported from it to the penal colonies of distant Australia. This book explores the island through these two very different environments from the founding of the monastery there by Saint Carthage to the use of the island as a place of detention, punishment and undignified death. From saints to starvation, 'Spike Island' embodies a part of the brightest a darkest legacy of Ireland's history.

Leseprobe

SPIKEISLAND

SPIKEISLAND

saints, felons and famine

MICHAEL MARTIN

Dedicated toEamon and Elizabeth Martin (RIP)my beloved parents,who planted the seeds of inspiration.

First published in 2007, reprinted 2010

The History Press Ireland

119 Lower Baggot Street

Dublin 2

Ireland

www.thehistorypress.ie

This ebook edition first published in 2012

All rights reserved

© Michael Martin, 2007

The right of Michael Martin, to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 07524 8110 4

MOBI ISBN 978 07524 8109 8

Original typesetting by The History Press

Contents

Acknowledgements

1    Cork Harbour: Home to Spike Island

2    The Island

3    The Liber Creaturarum

4    Changing Usage

5    Transportation and the Convicts of Cork Harbour

6    The Great Famine and Spike Island

7    John Mitchel

8    Mitchel and Van Diemen’s Land

9    The End of Transportation

      Bibliography

      Endnotes

Acknowledgements

The writing of any book and the compilation of historical information requires a great deal of time, effort and work. While the author may be immediately attributed with the credit for his or her creation, there are always those in the background without whom the project would never have seen the light of day. In my case, I want to acknowledge the continual support, encouragement and tolerance of my wife, Geraldine. I am eternally grateful for your help, thank you. My two sons Ken and Gary also offered encouragement of a different type, from a different perspective. Thank you both.

During my research in Australia I was assisted in the most practical fashion with advice and sometimes accommodation by the people of Bothwell, Tasmania and the guides, historians, and officials of Port Arthur, in particular, Richard Lord and Susan Hood. My thanks also to my extended families, cousins of the Nealon family and close friends Josh and Maureen Sheils, as their family provided me with much needed R&R in Brisbane.

My sincere thanks also to Tom O’Neill of the Irish Prison Service; Tom Foster, deputy governor of Spike Island; Cobh Town Council; Cobh Museum; local historian John Hennessy; Professor Dermot Keogh, Dr Damien Bracken and Gabriel Doherty of the History Department of University College Cork; Dr Carmel Quinlan, Dr Andrew McCarthy and Dr Michael Cosgave of the same institution; Tom McSweeney and Marcus Connaughton of RTÉ Cork, who valued my research and brought it to life on national radio; Maureen Mahon, who understood the demands of the scribe and assisted me greatly in my working life so that I could concentrate on the research and the writing. Finally, thank you to my many friends, family and neighbours of Cobh and elsewhere who are far too numerous to mention.

1

Cork Harbour: Home to Spike Island

Spike Island. Fourteen centuries and more. Silent, knowing and bearing witness. A fortress island, a sanctuary, a place of learning, an island paradise, a living hell. It has been all these things. It remains aloof in the midst of comings and goings, developments and change. Unimpressed and unchanged itself, Spike Island is a repository of Irish heritage, a place reflecting many aspects of Ireland’s history. The best of it and the worst of it. The gifted, the Holy. The cruel, the inhuman. The famine.

There are numerous other islands of various sizes and shapes in Cork Harbour. Among them are the Rocky, Haulbowline, Corkbeg, Hop, Fota, Little and Great Islands and there is even a Rat and a Hare Island. Today, these islands and the encircling mainland reflect modern usage of the harbour as an industrial base and a leisure activity area. Many of the big names in the pharmaceutical industry operate research development and manufacturing plants on the western side of the harbour near Ringaskiddy and Shanbally. On the eastern side at Whitegate and Aghada, an oil refinery and an electricity generating plant help feed Ireland’s twenty-first-century energy requirements.

The island of Haulbowline, in the middle of the harbour, is home to the Irish Navy. Despite their small fleet they operate a number of ultra modern vessels and are full partners in the operation and running of the National Maritime College nearby. This college uses leading ‘state of the art’ technology to educate students about life at sea. Simulation of storms, fires and evacuation by lifeboat in any number of situations are all features of the training that takes place there.

At East Ferry on the eastern end of Great Island, a different type of training is provided. Sailors young and old learn sailing skills at one of the foremost training centres, in the very same harbour that founded the concept of organised sailing for leisure. In 1720 the ‘Water Club’ was founded on Haulbowline Island. It was to eventually become the Royal Cork Yacht Club and remains the first and therefore the oldest yacht club in the world. Although now situated at Crosshaven, the club was based in Cobh for many years before moving to its present location in the mid-1960s. Today at East Ferry the sailors of tomorrow are taught how to tack, track and navigate in yachts, cruisers and punts, always applying the principles of enjoyment and safety.

The town of Cobh attracts thousands of visitors each year. People come from scores of different countries to learn of the harbour’s past, its heritage, and its islands. Each of these islands has its own distinctive story to tell, making a fascinating collection. Where else on earth would you find a cluster of so many, in such close proximity, that were overlooked by pre-Christian cairns, that hosted seventh-century monasteries, twelfth-century military posts, fourteenth-century governors, eighteenth-century penal settlements, military armoury magazines, castles, keeps, Martello towers and the magnificent nineteenth-century Neo-Gothic architecture of St Colman’s Cathedral. The islands in this harbour have witnessed the ravages of invasion, absorbed the tears of tragic famine and been tread upon by young, grey-faced soldiers destined for wars in foreign places. They have heard the wails of those dispatched in chains to distant prisons and felt the ray of hope in emigrant expectations.

Cobh is situated on the largest and most important of these islands. Its winding streets cling to ancient cliffs and hills. The entire town overlooks the grace and majesty of what is said to be second largest and most beautiful harbour in the world. This claim to being the second largest is not unique. In Great Britain they say it’s the harbour of Poole. In Canada, they say Halifax. Nobody seems to dispute that Sydney, Australia is the largest but have all the harbours of Asia, Alaska and other parts of the world been compared? Doubts remain.

Pivotal to the history of the town of Cobh (or Queenstown as it was known from 1849 to 1921) was its role as an important military port, where hundreds of thousands of soldiers, sailors and Defence Department officials of the British establishment were stationed. There was a British military presence in the harbour for approximately eight centuries. The town was an embarkation point for troops onward bound for conflicts such as the Crimean and Boer Wars. Earlier, large fleets had gathered there, awaiting the Royal Navy to provide sea-escorting duties during the trying years of the Napoleonic Wars. During the First World War, an American fleet of ships also came, and over the years, hundreds of shipping company clerks and executives operated the shipping line companies that flourished when Cobh was a hub of transatlantic travel.

Millions of emigrants, often fleeing political or economic oppression and even starvation, fled through Cobh. Presidents of Ireland, and of the United States, Queen Victoria and Laurel and Hardy have passed through these streets.

Cruise liners still visit, making their way through the narrow entrance of the harbour. Navigating around Spike Island to squeeze between Haulbowline and Great Island, they berth at a deepwater quay that was honed out of bedrock and developed in 1882. The passengers are disgorged and often, in the rush of modern tourism, they are left blissfully unaware of the heritage and history of Cobh and Cork Harbour, and of its timeless links with events that shaped peoples and nations throughout the world.

Cobh and Cork Harbour is an area of maritime fascination. Take, for example, the stories of Phoenician invasion; thirty-two boats filled with thirty men each, under the command of a colourful Phoenician prince, landed here 1,200 years before Christianity was to emerge from the same region as they did.

There are stories of invasions by the Celts, fearsome warriors who overran the mighty city of Rome in the fifth century. Their ancient gravesite (or cairn) on Currabinny Hill, in the south-west corner of the harbour, is a reminder of their pre-Christian period presence. One must be captivated too by the idea of Christian monks on Spike Island as early as the seventh century, going about their simple daily tasks in devotion and humility.

The harbour also saw the arrival of Vikings, who engaged in rape, pillage and plunder, up and into Cork. Leaving, and then returning to merge with the local population, the influence and sea experience of the Vikings eventually encouraged the opening up of new sea lanes and routes, facilitating better trade, new markets and maritime commerce.

The army of King Henry II was sent with the endorsement of the world’s only ever English Pope, Adrian IV. They recognised immediately the value of the harbour and so they didn’t leave for eight centuries.

The Spanish Armada sailed the south coast, outside the reach of the cannon batteries, placed, in the 1540s, on the western side of the only entrance to Cork Harbour. They were later augmented by batteries on the eastern side and, later still, further batteries at Haulbowline and Great Island. Had they got past those cannons it might have changed the course of Irish history.

Cobh and the magnificent harbour it graces has played host, in the days of sail, to those ships that searched out and probed new lands, that crossed angry oceans and rounded fearsome capes. It has been occupied by the military and naval might of a past world power. It has witnessed the tragic drain of entire generations of emigrants, millions of whom set out with hope and determination often expecting never to see their homeland again. They waved goodbye from creaking decks as they slipped away to find a better life and a prosperous future. Every single one who left this place passed by the silent brooding presence of Spike Island, before exiting into the often unforgiving Atlantic Ocean.

It is this island in the middle of Cork Harbour that embodies the most extraordinarily diverse background of all islands in the area. Prisoners, soldiers, sailors, governors, schoolteachers, monks, abbots, convicts and patriots have all occupied Spike over a vast tract of time beginning as early as the seventh century AD, when a monastery was founded there. To each group the island meant something different. It could be a place of quiet spiritual contemplation or a location of isolation, cruelty and death. The island has numerous abiding themes; ecclesiastical, penal, military, social, famine and political heritage. Of them all, the early period of the monastery, the connections with the famed John Mitchel and, most especially, the inextricable links between this island and some of the consequences of the famine, demand our attention.

2

The Island

Long recognised by the British as a location of military strategic importance, Spike Island, at various times through its history, was also used as a place of detention. Records show that many individuals, young and old, who were sent there as convicts in the mid-nineteenth century to serve a supposedly finite sentence, never left it.1 This contrasts sharply with the earlier historical period of the island when its monastery may have produced manuscripts of important ecclesiastical value.

This book examines some of Spike Island’s tumul-tuous background. It will show that, by virtue of its location and diversity of use over many years, Spike Island should be considered a place of significant historical importance. In pursuit of this, I will explore any possible links between the influence of the founder of the monasteries on Spike Island and Lismore, and the later spiritual reform movement in Ireland. In stark contrast to the ecclesiastical period on the island was the use of the prison as a centre of detention for convicts, particularly during the famine. Although officially listed as dangerous criminals, felons and convicts, the reality is that many of those who found themselves incarcerated on Spike Island from 1847 were there as a direct result of the famine and its effect on the island of Ireland. Some had stolen food to feed their families; others, sheep or pigs to do the same. One man on Spike Island was there awaiting transportation for stealing potatoes. Yet others were there because they were guilty of the crime of vagrancy. Their situations and how they came about will be examined and compared to the earlier, contrasting history of the Island.