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Overview
The dominant star shaped fortress on Spike Island testifies to it's strategic importance in the once heavily fortified bastion of British military might that was Cork Harbour. Beneath and around this edifice however lies the story of an island steeped in extensive Irish heritage that stretches further back into the mists of Irelands past beyond the arrival of the Normans and on through to the darkest period of Irish history. From an island of ecclesiastical retreat and contemplation to a dark and godforsaken destination of victims of Ireland's Great Famine, Spike Island has been a part of two contrasting periods in Irish history. The era of saints and scholars during which Spike was described as a Holy Island is set against a later backdrop of famine, disease and death and the dark judicial practice that saw men and boys transported from it to the penal colonies of distant Australia.
This book explores the island through these two very different environments from the founding of the monastery there by Saint Carthage to the use of the island as a place of detention, punishment and undignified death. From saints to starvation, 'Spike Island' embodies a part of the brightest a darkest legacy of Ireland's history.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780752481104 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The History Press |
| Publication date: | 01/31/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 160 |
| File size: | 240 KB |
| Age Range: | 12 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Spike Island
Saints, Felons and Famine
By Michael Martin
The History Press
Copyright © 2007 Michael MartinAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7524-8110-4
CHAPTER 1
Cork Harbour: Home to Spike Island
Spike Island. Fourteen centuries and more. Silent, knowing and bearing witness. A fortress island, a sanctuary, a place of learning, an island paradise, a living hell. It has been all these things. It remains aloof in the midst of comings and goings, developments and change. Unimpressed and unchanged itself, Spike Island is a repository of Irish heritage, a place reflecting many aspects of Ireland's history. The best of it and the worst of it. The gifted, the Holy. The cruel, the inhuman. The famine.
There are numerous other islands of various sizes and shapes in Cork Harbour. Among them are the Rocky, Haulbowline, Corkbeg, Hop, Fota, Little and Great Islands and there is even a Rat and a Hare Island. Today, these islands and the encircling mainland reflect modern usage of the harbour as an industrial base and a leisure activity area. Many of the big names in the pharmaceutical industry operate research development and manufacturing plants on the western side of the harbour near Ringaskiddy and Shanbally. On the eastern side at Whitegate and Aghada, an oil refinery and an electricity generating plant help feed Ireland's twenty-first-century energy requirements.
The island of Haulbowline, in the middle of the harbour, is home to the Irish Navy. Despite their small fleet they operate a number of ultra modern vessels and are full partners in the operation and running of the National Maritime College nearby. This college uses leading 'state of the art' technology to educate students about life at sea. Simulation of storms, fires and evacuation by lifeboat in any number of situations are all features of the training that takes place there.
At East Ferry on the eastern end of Great Island, a different type of training is provided. Sailors young and old learn sailing skills at one of the foremost training centres, in the very same harbour that founded the concept of organised sailing for leisure. In 1720 the 'Water Club' was founded on Haulbowline Island. It was to eventually become the Royal Cork Yacht Club and remains the first and therefore the oldest yacht club in the world. Although now situated at Crosshaven, the club was based in Cobh for many years before moving to its present location in the mid-1960s. Today at East Ferry the sailors of tomorrow are taught how to tack, track and navigate in yachts, cruisers and punts, always applying the principles of enjoyment and safety.
The town of Cobh attracts thousands of visitors each year. People come from scores of different countries to learn of the harbour's past, its heritage, and its islands. Each of these islands has its own distinctive story to tell, making a fascinating collection. Where else on earth would you find a cluster of so many, in such close proximity, that were overlooked by pre-Christian cairns, that hosted seventh-century monasteries, twelfth-century military posts, fourteenth-century governors, eighteenth-century penal settlements, military armoury magazines, castles, keeps, Martello towers and the magnificent nineteenth-century Neo-Gothic architecture of St Colman's Cathedral. The islands in this harbour have witnessed the ravages of invasion, absorbed the tears of tragic famine and been tread upon by young, grey-faced soldiers destined for wars in foreign places. They have heard the wails of those dispatched in chains to distant prisons and felt the ray of hope in emigrant expectations.
Cobh is situated on the largest and most important of these islands. Its winding streets cling to ancient cliffs and hills. The entire town overlooks the grace and majesty of what is said to be second largest and most beautiful harbour in the world. This claim to being the second largest is not unique. In Great Britain they say it's the harbour of Poole. In Canada, they say Halifax. Nobody seems to dispute that Sydney, Australia is the largest but have all the harbours of Asia, Alaska and other parts of the world been compared? Doubts remain.
Pivotal to the history of the town of Cobh (or Queenstown as it was known from 1849 to 1921) was its role as an important military port, where hundreds of thousands of soldiers, sailors and Defence Department officials of the British establishment were stationed. There was a British military presence in the harbour for approximately eight centuries. The town was an embarkation point for troops onward bound for conflicts such as the Crimean and Boer Wars. Earlier, large fleets had gathered there, awaiting the Royal Navy to provide sea-escorting duties during the trying years of the Napoleonic Wars. During the First World War, an American fleet of ships also came, and over the years, hundreds of shipping company clerks and executives operated the shipping line companies that flourished when Cobh was a hub of transatlantic travel.
Millions of emigrants, often fleeing political or economic oppression and even starvation, fled through Cobh. Presidents of Ireland, and of the United States, Queen Victoria and Laurel and Hardy have passed through these streets.
Cruise liners still visit, making their way through the narrow entrance of the harbour. Navigating around Spike Island to squeeze between Haulbowline and Great Island, they berth at a deepwater quay that was honed out of bedrock and developed in 1882. The passengers are disgorged and often, in the rush of modern tourism, they are left blissfully unaware of the heritage and history of Cobh and Cork Harbour, and of its timeless links with events that shaped peoples and nations throughout the world.
Cobh and Cork Harbour is an area of maritime fascination. Take, for example, the stories of Phoenician invasion; thirty-two boats filled with thirty men each, under the command of a colourful Phoenician prince, landed here 1,200 years before Christianity was to emerge from the same region as they did.
There are stories of invasions by the Celts, fearsome warriors who overran the mighty city of Rome in the fifth century. Their ancient gravesite (or cairn) on Currabinny Hill, in the south-west corner of the harbour, is a reminder of their pre-Christian period presence. One must be captivated too by the idea of Christian monks on Spike Island as early as the seventh century, going about their simple daily tasks in devotion and humility.
The harbour also saw the arrival of Vikings, who engaged in rape, pillage and plunder, up and into Cork. Leaving, and then returning to merge with the local population, the influence and sea experience of the Vikings eventually encouraged the opening up of new sea lanes and routes, facilitating better trade, new markets and maritime commerce.
The army of King Henry II was sent with the endorsement of the world's only ever English Pope, Adrian IV. They recognised immediately the value of the harbour and so they didn't leave for eight centuries.
The Spanish Armada sailed the south coast, outside the reach of the cannon batteries, placed, in the 1540s, on the western side of the only entrance to Cork Harbour. They were later augmented by batteries on the eastern side and, later still, further batteries at Haulbowline and Great Island. Had they got past those cannons it might have changed the course of Irish history.
Cobh and the magnificent harbour it graces has played host, in the days of sail, to those ships that searched out and probed new lands, that crossed angry oceans and rounded fearsome capes. It has been occupied by the military and naval might of a past world power. It has witnessed the tragic drain of entire generations of emigrants, millions of whom set out with hope and determination often expecting never to see their homeland again. They waved goodbye from creaking decks as they slipped away to find a better life and a prosperous future. Every single one who left this place passed by the silent brooding presence of Spike Island, before exiting into the often unforgiving Atlantic Ocean.
It is this island in the middle of Cork Harbour that embodies the most extraordinarily diverse background of all islands in the area. Prisoners, soldiers, sailors, governors, schoolteachers, monks, abbots, convicts and patriots have all occupied Spike over a vast tract of time beginning as early as the seventh century AD, when a monastery was founded there. To each group the island meant something different. It could be a place of quiet spiritual contemplation or a location of isolation, cruelty and death. The island has numerous abiding themes; ecclesiastical, penal, military, social, famine and political heritage. Of them all, the early period of the monastery, the connections with the famed John Mitchel and, most especially, the inextricable links between this island and some of the consequences of the famine, demand our attention.
CHAPTER 2The Island
Long recognised by the British as a location of military strategic importance, Spike Island, at various times through its history, was also used as a place of detention. Records show that many individuals, young and old, who were sent there as convicts in the mid-nineteenth century to serve a supposedly finite sentence, never left it. This contrasts sharply with the earlier historical period of the island when its monastery may have produced manuscripts of important ecclesiastical value.
This book examines some of Spike Island's tumul-tuous background. It will show that, by virtue of its location and diversity of use over many years, Spike Island should be considered a place of significant historical importance. In pursuit of this, I will explore any possible links between the influence of the founder of the monasteries on Spike Island and Lismore, and the later spiritual reform movement in Ireland. In stark contrast to the ecclesiastical period on the island was the use of the prison as a centre of detention for convicts, particularly during the famine. Although officially listed as dangerous criminals, felons and convicts, the reality is that many of those who found themselves incarcerated on Spike Island from 1847 were there as a direct result of the famine and its effect on the island of Ireland. Some had stolen food to feed their families; others, sheep or pigs to do the same. One man on Spike Island was there awaiting transportation for stealing potatoes. Yet others were there because they were guilty of the crime of vagrancy. Their situations and how they came about will be examined and compared to the earlier, contrasting history of the Island.
Spike Island is situated in one of the finest natural harbours in the world. Cork Harbour is magnificent. The gentle rolling hills of the mainland encircle and protect the scattering of islands. Enclosed in the natural formation of the harbour, these islands are in the estuary of the river Lee, which rises in the beautiful area of Gougane Barra in West Cork. Some are hardly islands any more; land reclamation and natural silting have left places like Fota and Little Island directly accessible from the mainland. Golf courses, industrial complexes, food outlets, housing developments and luxurious hotels create a diversity of modern architecture and atmosphere.
While it is as yet unspoiled by such modern developments, it is Spike Island that offers the most diverse range of imagery. Enveloped in isolation in the middle of the lower harbour, contrasting themes abound there. It has been considered by some to have been a holy island for over a thousand years; monks working, praying and reflecting out there in a world removed from the present by over fourteen centuries. Perhaps it was a place of fear in the ninth century when the arrival of the Vikings into Cork Harbour struck terror into those who may have been their targets. On other occasions it was a place of comfort; to those who were responsible for the defence of the realm when Ireland was a part of the empire, it was a place of power and protection. A formidable fortress with guns trained both outside and inside the harbour. Spike was also a place of separation and detachment, keeping those caught up in circumstances beyond their control confined and alone, facing years of being apart from their families, often on the other side of the world. This is a place of good and bad themes and of right and wrong.
The island itself almost straddles the entrance to Cork Harbour. Ships, immediately on entering the port from the open sea, are confronted head on with Spike. The natural deep water channel that leads from the river Lee to the mouth of the harbour circumvents the island so that any vessels sailing to or from Cork or Cobh cannot but navigate around it. Since there is only one gateway to and from the harbour itself, it is unavoidable not to see Spike Island whether entering or leaving. Millions of people have done so over the years. The island can look beautiful, particularly in the sunshine, with its green slopes and the scattering of small intimate beaches around its shoreline. On other days it looks dark and brooding, with the ever-present long, low walls that mark the outer ramparts of the fortress that crowns the landscaped island.
The earliest indication of activity on Spike Island comes from the Lives of the Saints, a series of manuscripts that outline the life and times of a variety of ecclesiastical figures. The Lives of Saint Declan and Mochuda outlines the background to the building of a monastery on Spike Island in AD 635. It was established by St Carthage (Mochuda) also referred to as St Carthach. There are no overground physical remains of the monastery today, although under the Planning Acts the western side of the island has been identified as having a 'potential' archaeological site.
St Carthage was born in Kerry and had established an important monastery at Rahan in County Offaly. This appears to have been a large monastic settlement with over eighty monks. Having spent many years there, St Carthage and his followers were run out of Rahan by a native group of clerics in the area. The reason for this expulsion is not entirely clear and it seems strange that a well-established monastic group should be driven out en masse in this way.
It is possible that St Carthage was ejected from Rahan because of a doctrinal dispute but there is no specific reason mentioned in the Lives. Inter-monastic warfare was not uncommon in Ireland during the so-called period of 'Saints and Scholars'. It must be remembered that monastic appointments of abbots and leaders were often chosen from among the most powerful families of a region. There was a fusion of power and religion and so alliances between powerful, wealthy families and particular monasteries were commonplace. Not surprisingly, disputes among monasteries were very often linked to political dynastic families and their rivalries; pitched battles over property, resources and land were common enough at this time. Monasteries rose up against each other in full military battles. Monks were killed, maimed and injured by other monks, supposedly in the name of religion but more often in pursuit of power and territory. Even 200 years later at the height of the Viking raids there were some periods during which the number of Irish monks killed by the Vikings was only exceeded by the number killed by other Irish monks. It will probably never really be known why Carthage fled from Offaly to Munster. However, the Lives recount that he did flee, and having set up the monastery on Spike Island, he eventually set up another one at Lismore. This monastery became famous well beyond the boundaries of County Waterford, where it is located.
The later importance of Lismore suggests a high regard in ecclesiastical circles for the work of St Carthage. He was noted for his piety and insistence on simplicity. His style of devotion and doctrinal ethics seems to have been revered at Lismore by his followers for many centuries after he died. In 1903, over 1,200 years after his death, he was made principal patron of Lismore. Over this period, Lismore had become a noted centre of study and ecclesiastical importance.
In the years after his death, clerics of Lismore were to become leading influences in one of the most significant reform movements of the late eighth and the ninth centuries. This movement was known as the Céli Dé and it was primarily associated with a monastery at Tallaght in Co. Dublin. It was a spiritual reform movement that espoused the virtue of simplicity and a rejection of the laicisation of monasteries that had become a feature of European monastic life. One of those noted for the founding of this movement in Ireland is MacOige of Lismore (d. 753).
In his book on spiritual reform, Peter O'Dwyer states that the movement began in the south of Ireland in a district that included Lismore, and that the Tallaght documents look back with great respect at men like MacOige of Lismore and Mocholmoc Ua Liathain, also of Lismore. He also considers the suggestions of Professor Kathleen Hughes and Miss Sanderlin regarding the significance of Lismore monks in compiling early and contemporary sources to write The Litany of the Pilgrim Saints, and he poses the question: 'Did the devotion to Irish saints so noted in Tallaght begin in Lismore and find its way to Tallaght to return once again to Lismore?'
Was the influence of the man who founded the monastery on Spike the basis of the devotion espoused by monastic successors at Lismore? Were their approaches to prayer and reform indicative of the type of worship that Carthage established when he set up Lismore? It seems reasonable to suggest that his ethos could have had some influence on the distinctive culture that the Waterford monastery was later noted for. He had, after all, founded this monastery and was himself known for his spiritual approach to prayer, work and poverty. T.M. Charles-Edwards, an eminent professor of History at the University of Cambridge refers to the 'Rule of St Carthach', which includes instructions for Céli Dé, meaning 'clients of God'. This was the name taken by the Tallaght reform movement that emerged in the second quarter of the seventh century about ninety to one hundred years after the death of Carthage.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Spike Island by Michael Martin. Copyright © 2007 Michael Martin. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgements,Cork Harbour: Home to Spike Island,
The Island,
The Liber Creaturarum,
Changing Usage,
Transportation and the Convicts of Cork Harbour,
The Great Famine and Spike Island,
John Mitchel,
Mitchel and Van Diemen's Land,
The End of Transportation,
Bibliography,
Endnotes,