On Friday 27th September our 3rd Year students went on a fieldtrip to Spike Island as part of their Junior Cycle History course.
They were given a guided tour of the island and were given the history of the island, the harbour and the wider area. They explored the 200 year old Fort Mitchel and learned that the 24 acre star shaped Fortress was built to defend an empire that became the largest prison in the world in the 1850’s during the famine years.
They learned how tens of thousands of Irish men and women were transported to America and Australia from the prison. The island would be used by both the British and Irish army and navy before becoming a prison again in the 1980’s.
They visited the infamous Punishment block as well as modern prison cells. Ireland’s largest military gun park was explored before they went through the tunnels to the harbour defence guns, entered the former children’s prison and explored parts of the villages, beaches and grasslands.