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.
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