Book description
After fourteen centuries of military and ecclesiastical heritage,
2005 saw the then-Justice Minister Michael McDowell put in place
proposals to turn Spike Island into Ireland's 'Alcatraz', through the
construction of a £70 million super-prison. Spike Island, situated
proudly in Cobh Harbour, has a long penal history. Cromwell used it as
a holding centre for those awaiting transportation to Barbados; their
place was to be then taken by those waiting to be shipped to Van
Diemen's land. Prisoners of the War of Independence were kept there,
before the island was finally handed over to the Irish. In 2007,
following extensive campaigning by heritage campaigners, these plans
were dropped, replaced by plans for its preservation as a heritage
site. The chairman of Cobh Tourism at the time was Michael Martin, the
author of this volume, and this is his story of our very own 'Devil's Island'.
The author has written a small tourist guide book, Titanic Trail
Cobh Queenstown for Cobh which has sold over 15,000 copies. He has
also made a 1 hour DVD documentary on the same subject that has sold
in excess of 5,000 copies in Ireland and the USA. He has written
numerous articles which have been published in Irish defence force
magazines on issues regarding representation and has also contributed
on tourism matters to the local newspapers and newsletters. The author
was a guest speaker on RTE Radio 1 in delivering one of the Thomas
Davis Lectures. He has featured briefly in television documentaries
produced by 20th Century Fox, Korean National Television, Australian
TV and National Geographic regarding Cobh and Titanic. In the last 2
years he has featured in 3 television documentaries for RTE
television. He published an annual visitor guide to Cobh from 2003 to
2006 in which he usually contributed an article on local history.
