The former prison on Spike Island in Cork Harbour could be converted at very little cost into a major tourist attraction similar to Alcatraz, off San Francisco, a conference on developing the island's tourism potential will hear next week.
According to the chairman of Cobh Tourism, Michael Martin, Spike Island has the potential to become a major tourist attraction for Cork city and Munster.
"Island prisons attract huge tourist numbers - Alcatraz for example has around 1.4 million visitors each year and Fort McHenry, off Baltimore, which served as a transit prison during the American Civil War, attracts around 700,000 visitors each year," said Mr Martin.
"Spike Island is a very historic island - there was a monastery there for 1,000 years founded by St Mochuda," said Mr Martin adding that it has also been suggested that Spike was used by both Cromwellians and Williamites as a camp for convicts awaiting deportation. Mr Martin said the Irish nationalist, John Mitchel, was also held on Spike Island in May 1848 before his deportation to Tasmania. During the War of Independence, Spike Island was used as a prison by the British to intern IRA men.
The conference takes place at the Commodore Hotel, Cobh, next Friday at 2.50pm.
