Spike Island exhibition to showcase lives of 1,200 IRA prisoners incarcerated by British

The 'Irish Examiner' has been given exclusive access to an exhibition set to open next year on Spike Island, commemorating those held at the prison by British forces 100 years ago.

Tom O'Neill, historian, in the new genealogy room, part of the War of Independence exhibition at Spike Island Museum. Picture: Larry Cummins

Spike Island will open a major exhibition next April highlighting extensive details of the lives of 1,200 IRA prisoners incarcerated there by the British exactly 100 years ago during the War of Independence.

The Irish Examiner has been given exclusive access to the exhibition and details of plans for year-round commemorations of the men who helped to win Ireland's freedom. These events are being funded by Cork County Council.

Many descendants of IRA men imprisoned there, including one large family group from Australia and others from America, plus more from Britain and Europe, are to visit the exhibition, which has been mounted after 10 years of painstaking research into the period by acclaimed historian and deputy manager of Spike Island, Tom O'Neill.

Most of his research came from extensive records held at the UK National Archives in Kew, London.

The exhibition will open to the public in April, if Covid-19 restrictions allow, and will be followed on July 11 — a date which coincides with the 1938 British handover of the Treaty Ports like Spike Island — when 1,200 fireworks will be fired into the night sky to commemorate all those incarcerated there from February 19 to November 19, 1921.

An open letter to British prime minister Lloyd George from a Spike Island internee, dated October 9, 1921. Picture: Larry Cummins

A number of themed days will also take place throughout the year to mark notable events there, and the tour guides will wear period military costumes.

An internment order - part of the Irish War of Independence exhibition/ collection at Spike Island, Co Cork. Picture: Larry Cummins

The youngest prisoner was just 16, and the museum has acquired a priceless audio recording of the prisoner who survived the longest: Dan O'Donovan from The Quays, Bantry, who died at the age of 104 in 2006. The fishmonger was 18 when he was jailed there.

The extensive exhibition includes a touchscreen display which provides records of all the men and can be searched by name, town of origin, etc.

Some of their dairies have also been transcribed into A4-sized booklets.

A notebook of prisoner names at Spike Island. Picture: Larry Cummins

Of those imprisoned there, 300 were tried by military courts as being active IRA members, while the other 900 were classified as internees and held merely on suspicion of being involved in anti-British activities.

Spike Island manager John Crotty said: "It's hoped, post-Covid-19, that tourism numbers will rise again. 

Spike Island Museum curator Dorota Gubbins with medals and a photo of former Spike Island internee Thomas Griffin, of Ballynoe, Co Cork. Picture: Larry Cummins

"Due to virus restrictions this year, the number of visitors plummeted by 52% compared to 2019, falling from 81,000 to 39,000.

“We hope the exhibition will help increase the number of visitors in 2021 to the 90,000 mark, and we hit the magical 100,000 by 2022.”

Coastal defence garrison also became military prison in 1921

Spike Island was transformed into a prison in 1921 because of the substantial increase in the numbers of convicted republicans and internees in the British army’s 6th Division area.

The official name for the prison was 'Military Prison in the Field, Spike Island'.

“On February 19, 1921, Spike Island became a ‘Military Prison in the Field’ [MPIF], consisting of an internment compound and a prison compound,” says Spike Island historian Tom O’Neill, adding that this move was published in the then Cork Examiner.

On Monday, February 21, the newspaper’s front page contained a small piece from ‘Our Cobh correspondent’, pointing out that this new role as an MPIF was in addition to the garrison’s primary role of coastal defence.

“There were three locations within the fort on Spike Island where the men were held during 1921,” says Mr O’Neill.

Block A was used to house prisoners in 1921.

“The northeast casemates were used from the very beginning for internees. The second location was the ‘A’ Block, on the southwest of the fort, and it was used only for internees. This block was previously used as accommodation for the British army’s enlisted ranks.”

Block A on Spike Island.

Mr O’Neill says the third location was ‘B’ Block and this consisted of 25 army-built wooden huts, used only for internees.

The huts were built during the First World War to provide temporary accommodation for British troops on short-term assignment to Spike Island.

“The men generally referred to their room/cell as their 'hut',” says Mr O’Neill.

“The huts, in the three locations, were the sleeping quarters, and simply by removing and stowing their bed boards and mattresses every morning, they converted the sleeping quarters into their day room.

“They were given tables, consisting of a wooden top that fitted on top of two high trestles, which could be quickly cleared to make room for the beds.

“Wooden and steel benches were used for seating.

“On Saturday, February 19, 1921, the first internees were transferred to Spike Island and secured in the northeast casemate, beside where we now have the Gun Park.

“A large percentage of the internees were from West Cork. Most of the remainder were from Cork City, Clare, and Kerry.”

A foggy scene looking at Block A.

On April 1, all the internees were moved from the northeast casemates, to A and B Blocks, in preparation for the arrival of the first republican prisoners from Bere Island.

During April 14 and 15, some 63 internees from Spike Island were transported to Bere Island, West Cork.

On April 15, all of the convicted republican prisoners were moved from Bere Island and transferred to Spike Island.

Thereafter, Bere Island was only used as an internment camp. There were regular transfers of prisoners and internees into and out of Spike Island throughout that year.

Spike Island aerial view. Picture: Spike Island

From monastery to ‘Alcatraz’ tourist attraction

Spike Island has a long and varied history that it is both colourful and diverse.

The first recorded human occupation was more than 1,300 years ago, following the arrival in 635 of a group of monks led by St Mochuda, also known as St Cartage.

He established a monastery there and later spread his influence to the west Waterford town of Lismore, where the cathedral still bears his name.

After the monks left, the island was inhabited and farmed by the Pyke, or Pike, family, until purchased at the end of the 18th century by the British military to be developed into a coastal fortification for the defence of Cork harbour.

The existing fort on the 104-acre island was built between 1803 and 1860, by the British military.

From around 1790 to 1938, the island was garrisoned by the British army.

In addition to the primary role of coastal defence, the fort was also used as a convict depot between 1847 and 1883. During this period, it was the biggest prison in the British empire.

Many of those held in the prison were guilty of the most minor crimes, yet tens of thousands of them were deported to Australia, many dying on the journey.

During 1916, the fort on Spike Island incarcerated those involved in the Easter Rising.

Later, during the War of Independence, it became a prison for Republican internees and prisoners. It was opened on February 19, 1921.

The men imprisoned there were almost exclusively from the six counties of Munster and from counties Wexford and Kilkenny.

The island was handed over by the British to Ireland in 1938 and was used as a base by the Irish Defence Forces. Later, the prison was reopened as a youth correctional facility.

On September 1, 1985, the inmates rioted. During the riot, one of the accommodation blocks, Block A, caught fire. Order was only restored after gardaí and an Irish army riot squad arrived.

The prison facility closed in 2004.

The Department of Justice handed it over to Cork County Council in July 2010 and the council set about turning it into a tourist attraction, dubbed 'Ireland’s Alcatraz'.

The island is now a world-class tourist destination. In 2017, Spike Island was voted the best tourist attraction in Europe and was runner-up in the worldwide category.

In 2019, the island won the best attraction at the International Travel and Tourism Awards ceremony.

Many visitors do not realise the amount of wildlife on the island, which is being used for the conservation of endangered species. The red squirrel is being reintroduced to the island, where it is safe from the grey squirrel. 

The Irish hare is also present on Spike Island, and there is an abundance of pheasants, safe from mainland predators.