Cork And The Spike Island Visit

   We were in Cove at 5am this morning with a sailing time of 9:30 tonight. We had

Cove Ireland

a noon reservation for our trip to the island so we had breakfast in the dining room and went ashore by mid morning. We have been to Cove many times on our crossings so there was not much new here. We did follow the Titanic trail as Cove was the last major port before it headed out across the Atlantic and there are reminders of that wherever you go. Just offshore the liner Lusitania was torpedoed by a u-boat in World War 1. The main street is active with bars and souvenir shops. By afternoon they were full of passengers from the ships.

Officer's Quarters

 

Judy In The Prison Wing

       The main attraction of the day for us was a visit to Spike Island. It was not even an attraction when we were here a few years ago but it is now ranked as the #1 Tourist attraction on trip adviser. It is slowly being supported by the local governments. Our visit was very interesting. Spike island started life as a fort for the protection of the harbor which is apparently one of the best in the world. The shuttle ferry to the island took about 25 minutes. We were immediately met by our guide who gave us about a 90 minute tour of the fort. It started existence as a fort along with 2 other facilities built at the same time. This was in addition to some Martello Towers which were built throughout the British Isles. After it was a fort, they turned it into a prison which like the Dublin jail, held prisoners for transport to the developing colony of Australia and Tasmania. During WW2 it again became a defensive position for the protection of the harbour. It still contains 2 - 6 inch guns for protection. After the war it was again turned into a prison. At that time some new cells were built. It was finally abandoned about 20 years ago and fell into disuse. It is currently being updated and rebuilt.

Housing in Disrepair

        One of the interesting things about the fort was that there was housing for solder's families. In addition to the houses there was a school and a church all of which are in terrible disrepair. There was a fire in the Officer's building years ago and today it remains a shell. While serving as a prison, a riot broke out and a cell block was set on fire. Interesting enough after breaking out the prisoners got down to the dock only to find that the boats were chained up. The guards had locked the prison gates and the prisoners had to

Spike Island Church

break back into the prison to escape the army which was being sent to quell things. Our guide for all this (John G) was a great story teller mixing facts with humour. He did an absolute great job.  We did have about 90 minutes to explore the grounds after the tour which was too short to fully explore the place. 

    When we returned to Cove we walked up the hill to the large church for a quick visit. Then we stopped around the corner at Doyle's bar for a drink. Away from the town center, Doyle's is a neighborhood bar with about a

Deck Of  Cards Housing Cove

dozen people in it. Only 2 other cruise passengers were in there. We met a woman who was born on Spike island and attended school there. What are the chances! She filled in some of the story about the families that lived there.

   Returning to the ship, we dressed and went to an Irish folkloric show and then after dinner attended the Pub Night show. This is a “new” show put on by the staff that we saw for the first time last spring. We gain an hour tonight which is a good thing. We have started our 5 day crossing of the Atlantic heading for Halifax.