A TOURIST attraction at Cork’s Spike Island is closer to becoming a reality following Cork County Council’s decision to seek tenders for a plan to develop the site.
A tender advertisement for the plan states the “tourism potential for Spike Island is clearly a catalyst for the redevelopment of the island”. However, the local authority says the plan will encompass multiple uses.
In July of last year Spike Island was officially handed over to Cork County Council by former minister for social protection Éamon Ó Cuív on behalf of the Department of Justice.
July 2010 also marked the 72nd anniversary of the handover of Spike Island to the State and the 89th anniversary of the truce declared between British and Irish forces during the War of Independence.
Cork County Council plans to transform Spike Island into a major tourism and heritage centre, highlighting the role the island has played in Irish history.
Over the centuries the island has seen monastic settlements, penal colonies and military bases on its shores. The island’s very first settler was St Carthage, who built a monastic settlement there in the sixth century.
Its potential as a prison was seen by Oliver Cromwell who used the island as a holding centre before sending Irish men and women as slaves to work on Caribbean plantations.