Council wants Spike to become Alcatraz II

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

It is understood the plan will inform the submission to Fáilte Ireland for funding under its strategic tourism infrastructure programme.

According to the tendering advert for the master plan, the focus of the plan should not be solely on Spike Island as a tourist opportunity.

“It should be noted that while the tourism potential of Spike Island is clearly a catalyst for redevelopment of the island, the master plan will encompass multiple uses, some of which may not be immediately apparent. This approach will help to stimulate a layered approach to redevelopment, from large-scale infrastructure initiatives to bottom-up community led projects.”

In July of last year, former Minister for Social Protection, Éamon Ó Cuív, acting on behalf of the Department of Justice, handed over Spike Island to Cork County Council.

In November fears were raised at a meeting of Cork County Council that the plans to turn the island into a tourist mecca could be damaged by the Government’s handling of the economy.

A monastic settlement was established on the island in the 6th century by St Carthage. Three centuries later it suffered Viking raids, while by the 12th century the Normans had taken control.

Between 1652 and 1659 the island became a prison from which Cromwell sent more than 50,000 men, women and children to work as slaves in British plantations in the Caribbean.

The use of Spike Island as a holding and deportation centre continued right up until the 1880s, with the island home to as many as 2,000 prisoners at a time during those years.

The building of Fort Westmoreland was completed in the early 1800s.

The island served as a British army base from 1883 until the outbreak of the War of Independence, when it once again was used to house rebels and convicts until the signing of the truce between British and Irish forces on July 11, 1921.

Spike Island was used to house young offenders in the 1980s and was the scene of a riot by inmates in 1985, which saw the destruction of the residential blocks in the fort. The prison was finally closed in 2004.