Norwich bulletin., 1917-03-07
THE WAR PRIMER By National Gsosraphic Society

Queenstowu Isiands Describing Queenstown. the place from which Consul Frost has sent so many mes
 sages tellinz of torpedoed ships, the headquarters are here. says in a bull letin issued today:
 Queenstown is likely to. be a cen 1 ter of news of the German submarine crusade, inasmuch as the ordinary channels of shipping pass nearby The town, numbering slightly more than S.oo0 souls, has a three-fold dis
 sinstlen s;t,s as ssaD9rt ysa waserplaes weI1-built and attractive place. with a
 mild climate. and, being built upon an island, it's eteets rise in terraces one above the other and offer su- waters.
 Within fifty years the place was only small fishing village and was
 known as Nthe Cove of Cork It's
 reason of it's having been the first spot in Ireland upon which Queen Victoria set foot.
 1t still serves as the port of the
 miles distant. Cork itself is located at the point of entry of the river Lee into the bay.
 The harbor of Queenstown is Carlisle and Camden-at it's entrance, and by Fort Westmoreiand, which is situated upon Spike Island, one of the group of three isles which make up the government dockyard and consti-
 tute the fine natural breakwater of
 the harbor wherein a large fleet can find safe anchorage.
 Spike Island, according to a writ ical and Archaeo1oical Society, excels any island in the circuit of the Brit ish Isles in it's cheQuered, albeit un- eventfuI, history. Upon ne other is
 land on the Irish Coast he declares. nave so many strangers. eyes rested, or so few persons voluntarily set foot the point of the last comment being that here for many years was situ- ated the chief convict prison for all Ireland.
 Tt was once one of the holy isles of the past along with Iona, Mont St. Michel and the SkeIligs; and here a monastery was built by s. Moeh. uada, who had received the island from CathaI, King of Munster, for that he had been healed of the holy man of deafness, blindness ano dumb ness. From the Seventh to the Twelfth Century, however, the record of the holy island is complete blank, caused, no doubt, by the disappear
 snce of the monastery. At the later
 late Spike Island became Anglo Norman spoil under the charter of three hundred years takes place in its history; and it is recorded that the place was infested by smugglers.
 Toward the end of the Els hteenth century the island passed to the Crown, and no time was lost in forti- flying it. In 1779 a battery of twenty four guns had been installed and in 1790 the position was named Fort Westmoreland by the nob1eTnan oft that family who at the time was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and visited the island.
 Two years before, the Queens visit to the town, Spike Island was made a convict depot. upon the abo,ishment of the transportation scheme of pun- ishment which had been in vogue Cork harbor had been a concentration point for these. unforfunates, who were hudd1ed into a prison ship while awaiting their deportation. Soon as many as 2,500 convicts were to be found at Spike and they were ern- ployed at work upon the Notifications A system of good-conduct rewards was established, and the length of imprisonment and the privileges to be enjoyed were made determinable by the conduct of the prisoners while under detention. The island ceased to be a prison in 1885. at which time was handed over to the military au- thorities.