SPIKE ISLAND was officially handed over to Cork County Council yesterday for use as a tourist amenity amid efforts to develop it into an attraction comparable to Alcatraz in the US.
Alcatraz in San Francisco, which was only a prison for 20 years, attracts about 1.4 million visitors each year while Fort McHenry, off Baltimore, which served as a transit prison during the American Civil War, receives about 700,000 visitors annually.
Spike was first a prison in the mid-19th century, often the last place in Ireland prisoners saw before being transported overseas. At the time it held as many as 2,500 prisoners.
Minister for Social Protection Éamon Ó Cuív officially handed the site over to the council yesterday on behalf of the Department of Justice and Law Reform.
Over the centuries the island has seen monastic settlements, penal colonies and military bases established on its shores.
Council officials are seeking proposals to develop tourism on the island and plan to secure a ferry service in the coming weeks.
The first visitors will be given walking tours of the island.
Cllr Jim Daly, mayor of Co Cork, said the official handover of the island represented the culmination of a long campaign by the people of Cork.
“We have campaigned for a number of years to have the island handed over to Cork County Council and today marks the culmination of the work of so many local politicians and residents,” he said.
Mr Ó Cuív said the handover was a special day for Cork and for him personally.
“Seventy-two years ago to the day, my grandfather Éamon de Valera stood here as the national flag, the Irish Tricolour, was raised for the first time over the island, when the Treaty ports were handed back to the Irish State.”
Martin Riordan, Cork county manager, said a master plan for the island would be published next spring.
“We hope to have made considerable progress in the planning process before the end of the year,” he said.
A website has been set up inviting the public to make suggestions as to how Spike Island should be developed as a tourist attraction: www.spikeislandcork.com