Councillors seek heritage status for Spike Island

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.

The vast majority of the council’s 48 members backed a proposal from Sinn Féin’s Martin Hallinan who said the island was an archaeological gem, with a known history dating back 1,500 years.

“There could be even more history to be discovered there. There are a number of similar locations [former prisons] in the USA, Canada and Australia which have been turned into tourist sites. Even the former governor of Alcatraz said so himself,” Mr Hallinan said.