Gerry Moore - former Spike Island prison officer, Cork harbour, Ireland. 'VOICES OF SPIKE 4/10' Cobh

Spike Island has a rich history as a home to a 7th century monastery, a huge 1700's fortress built to defend a empire, centuries of social life and being used as a prison on 4 seperate occasions in the 1600's, 1800's, 1921 and 1985 - 2004. Today the island can be visited by ferry as one of Ireland's premium visitor attractions, where you can discover Irish history and heritage in over a dozen musuems and exhbitions.
This video is an interview with former prison officer Gerry Moore who lived on Spike Island. It is number 4 of 10 interviews held with former residents and service men and women who stayed on the island. In 1938 Ireland took back control of the island from Britain and Irish families lived a wonderful sheltered life off the mainland from 1938 - 1985. From 1985 to 2004 the island was used as a prison.
These stories give us an idea what life was like for the residents on this island hamlet in the Celtic sea.
The former service men and women describe their military life in the island fortress while the former prison officers recount their experience.
See the rest in the series in our 'Voices of Spike Island' playlist and to hear the story of some of our prisoners, see our 'Letters from Spike Island' playlist