IRELAND'S BLOODY PAST seen through the lens of Elizabeth Fort, an amazing fortification in Cork City

I’m in Cork City visiting the spectacular 17th Century Fortification known as Elizabeth Fort, named after Britain’s Queen Elizabeth I. It’s a place that’s born witness to much of Irelands political turbulence and violent past. To an extent you can follow Ireland’s history by understanding the history of the fort.

A lot of work goes into these videos. You can now buy me a pint as a means of appreciation for my work on Naked Ireland, no obligation, obviously - only if you can afford it... I appreciate it. Cheers.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/NakedIre...

Since 2014 the fort has been open as a tourist attraction, and so we can now enjoy this impressive building from the inside at last. It is now used for a number of events, and these include: the Cork Midsummer Festival, Cork Heritage Open day, Culture Week, Culture Night, The Cork St Patrick’s Festival and the 2015 Finbar’s Festival.

The fort was originally constructed right at the start of the 17th Century, in 1601, in a response to landings of the Spanish Armada in Kinsale, the purpose of which was for the Spanish to unite with Irish Rebels and join forces in a common cause against the English. This initiative failed and Elizabeth Fort in Cork was a means of guarding against future rebel insurrections and foreign incursions.

We visit a part of the Fort that was constructed as an air raid shelter during the second world war in case of bombing. And so you can see the history of the fort spans conflict across the ages.

Shortly after the Kinsale incident, and prompted by the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, the fort was attacked by 800 rebels in Cork, but again this insurrection was brought under control by British reinforcements, and to add insult to injury the British forced the people of Cork to pay for the repair of the fort. So what we see today is the star shaped fort that was part of the re-construction between 1624 and 1626 much of which survives.

Between 1817 and 1837 the fort was used as a deportation centre for convicts as many as 250 prisoners at a time would have been held here, awaiting arrival of ships to take them to Penal Colonies in New South Wales and various other British territories. It was mostly female prisoners that were held here. If you’re watching from Australia now, this is likely your ancestors last stop before arriving in Aus.

And as we enter an exhibition centre that focuses on these detainees, and the many women that were held, if you look up you can see the place where the old Garda Síochána sign was when this place functioned as a Police station between in 1929 right up to 2013.

This is a really interesting exhibition space which focuses on the history of the fort, with lots of maps and artist’s impressions that give us some idea of how not just the fort, but Cork has developed. And the main thrust of the exhibition is the on the women who were deported.

Ireland’s most hated historical figure, Oliver Cromwell, ordered further improvements to the defences in 1649/50. So with all this construction of defences, they were finally put to use during the Williamite wars of 1690. Elizabeth Fort and what was then the walled city of Cork were held by Jacobite forces loyal to the Catholic King James. King William of Orange besieged the city and after a week of bombardment the fort was surrendered.

In the 18th century, in 1719, the fort became an army barracks, with soldiers accommodation being built inside, but in the century afterwards, a new barracks in the north of the city meant that the barracks at Elizabeth fort was no longer necessary.

By 1845 the fort had become a Royal Irish Constabulary station and was being use as a food depot addressing widespread starvation during the great famine. And in the last century the fort was a billet for the notorious Black and Tans during the Irish War of Independence, and during the Irish Civil War which followed, the fort was held by anti-treaty forces and on their retreat, they burned the buildings within the fort. This means that the buildings you see within the fort today all date from the 1920’s onwards.