Treaty Ports (Ireland) - Spike Island Handover (11 July 1938)

Spike Island Handover (11 July 1938)

On 12 July 1938, The Times reported on the handover of Spike Island, near Cobh (51°50′2.15″N 8°17′5.97″W / 51.8339306°N 8.2849917°W / 51.8339306; -8.2849917) on 11 July 1938 as follows:

CORK FORTS HANDED OVER - Amid the booming of guns the last British troops stationed at Spike Island in Cork Harbour this evening handed over custody of the island and the adjoining fortifications to the troops of Eire.

This is the first stage in pursuance of the defence provisions of the agreement recently concluded in London between the British Government and Mr. de Valera. The defences at Berehaven and at Lough Swilly will be handed over to Irish custody before the end of the year. Spike Island has had a long and interesting history, and for more than 150 years the British flag has flown over it as one of the main defence works on the southern coast. For years Spike was a penal settlement and was continued as such down to the truce of 1921. To-day was the seventeenth anniversary of the truce.

For the ceremony of taking over the fortifications the Government of Eire sent out a number of invitations, the guests including Ministers, members of the Dáil and Senate, and leaders of the old Irish Republican Army. A decorated train brought the guests from Dublin to Cobh, and a tender carried them to Spike Island, where about 300 Irish troops had already landed under Major Maher. Only a small party of British troops remained, and Captain O'Halloran, who was in charge, handed over the forts to Major Maher on behalf of the Eire Government at 6.20 p.m., and the Union Jack was lowered. The British soldiers then went aboard the motor-vessel Innisfallen and left for Fishguard, a salute being fired as the vessel departed.

The British had already departed when Mr. de Valera and Mr. Frank Aiken, the Minister for Defence, arrived in a launch, being greeted by a salute of 19 guns. The troops were formed up around the flagstaff and Mr. de Valera ran up the tricolour national flag of Eire over Westmoreland Fort to the accompaniment of a salute of 21 guns. As the flag was broken there were cheers, re-echoed by the thousands gathered on the mainland. Simultaneously the flag was saluted at barracks in Dublin, the Curragh, Athlone, and other military centres. The warship H.M.S. Acasta, which has been in the port on duty, left about the time the Innisfallen sailed, and both were well out to sea by the time the Irish flag was hoisted on the island.

The invitations to the Irish handover celebration read as follows:

The Minister for Defence on behalf of the Government of Ireland requests the honour of the company of XXX on the occasion of the handing over of the Cobh Harbour Defences and the raising of the National Flag at Spike Island, Cobh, Co. Cork on Monday, 11th July 1938 at 8pm - RSVP etc.