BERE Island Projects Group will hold their 2024 Military Heritage Festival over the weekend of Saturday June 22nd and Sunday June 23rd June, in the Drill Hall, Rerrin featuring an exhibition and talks from a number of military experts.
The group held their first Military Heritage Festival in 2023 and now plan for it to be an annual event.
The festival is taking place in the Drill Hall, which was constructed in 1915 and used by the British admiralty for drill practice. At one time it also served as a cinema for both the military and islanders.
The festival will open with a talk on the Bere Island company of Cumman na mBan by island historian Ted O’Sullivan. Other speakers scheduled to speak over the weekend include Noelle Grothier of the Irish Military Archives who will also have a display of documents relating to the island, Michael Kennedy of the Royal Academy, Dr Rory Finnegan Professor of Military History and Strategic Studies at Maynooth University, Owen Foley a former Irish Army officer, Fachtna O’Donovan from the Beara Historical Society and historian Tony McCarthy.
Bere Island’s military heritage spans four centuries and it is said to be one of the best preserved military landscapes in Ireland. Following the attempted French invasion of Bantry Bay in 1796 and realising the strategic location of the bay as an entry point to Ireland – and by extension England – for foreign invading forces, the British built four Martello Towers on Bere Island, two of which remain.
In 1898 the British War Department issued a compulsory purchase order for the eastern end of the island and constructed seven gun batteries.
In 1921 during the War of Independence, an internment camp was in operation on Bere Island until the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December that year.
A condition of the treaty was that Britain retained control of three deep-water ports in Cork Harbour, Lough Swilly, and Berehaven, which became known as the Treaty Ports. Fort Berehaven, Bere Island was handed back to the Irish Government on September 26th, 1938. The final detachment of British troops left the island four days later on September 30th, thereby ending a continual British military presence on Bere Island since 1798.
The island’s military links continues to this day with the Irish Defence Forces who use the former Fort Berehaven as a training base.
The festival is funded by Cork County Council’s West Cork Island’s Amenity Fund and The Heritage Council’s Heritage Organisations Support Fund 2024. For the full schedule see www.bereisland.net
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