With 1,300 years of history, Ireland’s ‘Alcatraz’ has been named Europe’s No 1 tourist attraction, writes Sean O’Riordan

Spike Island, Ireland’s equivalent of Alcatraz, has been nominated as one of Europe’s leading tourist attractions in the prestigious World Travel Awards.

Ireland’s Alcatraz-style visitor attraction unveils its €5m revamp this weekend as the country gets set to bask in bank holiday sunshine.

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The minister for the defence and marine, Simon Coveney, will oppose controversial new plans for a €160m incinerator in Cork Harbour.

A waterfront slice of old Cobh, and Queenstown before it, has come up for sale, with some novel additional features.

Alcatraz prison’s reputation as never having a successful escape is being questioned amid new claims from the families of two escapees that the men made it away alive.

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Plans to turn Spike Island into an Alcatraz-style attraction would certainly prove a magnet for Irish-Americans, according to US sailors who visited the historic site yesterday.

SHOULD it be every Cork resident’s right to get out on the abundant waters of the harbour, or the River Lee?

It celebrates America’s heritage, but some traditions are less than appetising, says Dave Kenny

Archaeologists have identified for the first time the full extent of a convicts’ mass grave on what was once a notorious concentration camp-style prison in Cork harbour.

After some controversial incidents on the professional front in recent times, golf’s reputation as a game of honour and self-regulation has come under a little bit of fire.

A former criminal associate of James “Whitey” Bulger told jurors at the accused mob boss’s trial that he agreed to testify against his old friend after learning that his former gang pals had begun co-operating with law enforcement.

James ‘Whitey’ Bulger is no longer the feared man who swaggered around south Boston and later became one of America’s most-wanted fugitives.

It’s about that time. Again.

Tiger Woods strode The Olympic Club like a colossus as Pádraig Harrington again struggled with his putter in the opening round of the US Open.

Lee Slattery followed one great performance with another at Celtic Manor today.

One man can make a difference – he can make predictable, half-baked hokum like 'Lockout' almost watchable.

A masterplan to redevelop Spike Island into an attraction comparable to Alcatraz will be unveiled this week.

Birdsong, BBC One, tomorrow

CORK County Council is seeking tenders for a master plan to develop Spike Island as an Alcatraz-type tourist attraction.

Tickets to see Liam Gallagher’s new band, Beady Eye, in the UK sold out in under half an hour.

ON the exact day 72 years after the British handed back an island in Cork harbour another historic handover took place there which will ultimately see Ireland’s “Alcatraz” turned into a major tourist attraction.

An expert on Ireland’s version of Alcatraz today called for the former off-shore prison to be transformed into a national famine memorial.

Ownership of Spike Island, site of a former prison located in Cork harbour, is to be transferred free of charge to Cork County Council to enable its development as a tourist attraction, it was announced today.

Is it naive to think that there were only problems in Donegal?

NEIGHBOURING north Kerry and west Limerick parishes were last night trying to come to terms with tragedies that claimed the lives of a young solider and a schoolboy.

JOHN HUGHES was once again left frustrated by the performance of match officials after Falkirk found themselves on the wrong end of three crucial decisions in the 1-0 home defeat by Celtic yesterday.

A DIVER sets out tonight to become the first West Cork man to swim the English Channel — and, in the process, make €10,000 for various worthy causes.

Action man Steven Seagal’s steady decline box office appeal is evident in Half Past Dead (SPHE, €24.99) a dull action film which sees Seagal and rapper Ja Rule play convicts caught in the crossfire at Alcatraz as a bunch of commandos take on the FBI.

CORK County Council officials are to compile a report on designating Spike Island a national heritage and amenity site, in a move which could finally remove any possibility of a super jail being built there.

ANGER and surprise were expressed by local representatives and community leaders yesterday as they learnt that an army camp in North Cork could become the site of a €70 million prison.

A GOVERNMENT minister said yesterday that Justice Minister Michael McDowell’s plans to build a controversial super-prison on Spike Island in Cork Harbour are a mistake.

RECENTLY I attended a conference in Cobh, Co Cork, entitled ‘Spike Island: Hidden History. An Opportunity in Tourism’.

THE Irish Prison Service has blocked top academics from visiting Spike Island ahead of a conference on its tourism potential organised by those fighting the government’s super-prison plans for the island.

A seven-year-old boy who has become one of the youngest people to swim from Alcatraz to San Francisco says his next ambition is to conquer the English Channel.

I FEEL the Government decision to build a new prison on Spike Island is flawed.