RPM7+QG Rocky Island, Cork, Ireland
The first evidence of the founding of a monastery on Spike Island is found in the "Moanasticon Hibernicum," which states that Saint Mochuada established a monastery there in the 7th century. It is known for certain that in 1774 ruins of a church existed on Spike Island. The granting of the abbey of Saint Thomas in 1178 coincides with the transfer of lands, including Spike Island, by Diarmuid MacCarthy, King of Desmond, to the Normans. In 1182, a certain Raymond Mangunel was granted Spike Island. The island may have been used by smugglers for some time, and a fortified tower is clearly shown on a map around 1600, resembling the image of Belvelly Castle on Great Island. The island’s location at the entrance to Cork Harbour meant it had strategic importance, so the government leased the island for the construction of fortifications.
The island first became a prison during Cromwell’s conquest of Ireland during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell invaded Ireland in August 1649 in a brutal and bloody campaign still remembered today. By May 1652, Cromwell’s parliamentary army had defeated the coalition of Confederates and Royalists in Ireland and occupied the country, taking tens of thousands of prisoners, many of whom were accused of aiding the rebellion. The punishment for many was exile to a foreign colony. So, where to hold 50,000 people who were to be sent to North American colonies and Caribbean islands such as Barbados? It seems Spike Island became the solution to this problem, and for the first time in its history, the island became an island prison. Today, there is an Irish community in Montserrat and other Caribbean islands that warmly remembers its Irish roots.
The first artillery fortification on the island was built in 1779. Its construction was prompted by the start of the American Revolution in 1775 and, in particular, the entry of France and Spain into the war on the American side. Additionally, Cork was a supply point for British troops operating in the West Indies and North America. Thus, the need arose to protect the harbor. After the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which ended the war, this temporary structure was demolished.
In 1789, Colonel Charles Vallancey of the Irish Corps of Engineers, who was appointed responsible for fortifying the harbor during the American War, persuaded the then Lord Lieutenant John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland, to allow the construction of a permanent fortification on Spike Island. In October 1790, the Earl visited the island and named the unfinished structure Fort Westmorland. In 1794, after Westmorland’s departure, his successor as Lord Lieutenant halted construction of Fort Westmorland. Eventually, construction resumed and was completed by 1802. In 1802, General John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun, recommended building a large fortress on Spike Island capable of housing 2,000–3,000 men. In 1804, the Hampshire Chronicle reported that the overall height of Spike Island had been reduced by 25 feet, and the earth was used as fill to create a level foundation. The same newspaper reported that on June 6, 1804, General Sir Eyre Coote laid the first stone for the foundation of the new fortress.
Later, the island became a prison and was used to house convicts before their transportation to penal institutions.
The famine came to Ireland in 1845, and by 1846 the country was engulfed in death. Ultimately, over a million people would die, and two million would emigrate in search of salvation. The starving were forced to take desperate measures to survive, and crime rose sharply, mostly petty crimes related to food and low-value goods. Many of those found guilty of crimes were sentenced to transportation abroad, serving a dual purpose—settling the colonies and ridding Ireland of undesirables. But foreign colonies such as Australia began refusing to accept convicts, complaining about the quality of those sent. Prison authorities were overwhelmed by the growing number of inmates, and urgent measures were taken to find places to hold the increasing prisoner population.
Spike Island continued to serve as a refuge for British military forces after the Anglo-French wars ended with Napoleon’s defeat. But by then the fort was unfinished, the need for its defense had diminished, and soon prison authorities saw it as a potential solution to their overcrowding problem. This arrangement suited the military, as free labor could be used to complete unfinished work on the fort. Progress was made, and on October 9, 1847, the first prisoners in two centuries were held on Spike Island when 109 people were transferred to its hastily converted living blocks. It was intended that the island would hold 800 prisoners, but within a few short years, their number rose to more than 2,300, making it the largest known prison in the world. Prisoners were even sent from Britain to fill its cells, and it held more than half of Ireland’s prisoners.
The famine-era prison on Spike Island included a specially equipped ‘children’s prison’ for 100 boys aged 12 in a former ammunition store, with the children sleeping in hammocks suspended by chains. The conditions for men were horrific, and overcrowding was a serious problem. New blocks were put into operation, such as the wooden prison and the iron prison, but these too quickly became more than twice full. As a result, the mortality rate was 10%, and up to 1,000 people died in the first six years of its existence. Over 36 years from 1847 to 1883, more than 1,300 people died, and 750 died in the hospital where the chief surgeon was an alcoholic and used opiates. Two mass graves now serve as a reminder of this time. Treatment of rebels in the prison was even worse; they were sent to solitary confinement in ‘dark cells.’ Initially, these were converted toilets at the end of deep tunnels beneath the walls of Bastion 3 of the fort, but in 1858, after the killing of a warder, a specially built "punishment block" was constructed. Men held here were chained to the wall by neck and legs for up to 23.5 hours a day in windowless, furniture-less cells and slept on straw on the floor in appalling conditions. The prison block broke many men, and its name was cursed throughout Ireland.
Gradually, the number of prisoners decreased, and by the late 1850s, it reached about a thousand inmates. They were engaged in improvement works on the fort and were even transferred to forts in the harbor and the nearby naval base at Haulbowline. By this time, transportation of prisoners had ceased, and they served their sentences in Irish prisons.
Many famous figures are associated with Spike Island and its prison, but perhaps the most famous is the legendary Percy Fawcett. Colonel Fawcett was one of the most enigmatic, colorful, and enterprising characters of the entire 20th century, not to mention the history of Spike Island, and the three years he spent on Spike Island were just part of a rich life lived with a true passion for exploration and achievement. Fawcett was a man of many talents, and throughout his life, he was to find work as a British spy, a renowned surveyor, geographer, jungle adventurer, and famous writer.
From 1903 to 1906, he served in the War Office on Spike Island, where on January 11, 1905, he was promoted to major. He befriended writers Sir Henry Rider Haggard and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; the latter used Fawcett’s field reports on the Amazon as inspiration for his novel "The Lost World."
The juvenile offender colony ceased to exist only in 2004.
Today, visitors can tour the Carcer, which has been preserved intact, including its chilling "dark cells." The former children’s prison now hosts exhibitions on crime and punishment, and both spaces provide an astonishing insight into what life was like for prisoners nearly 200 years ago, while telling the stories of some of Ireland’s most interesting prisoner characters.
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