Ceremony to mark Treaty Port handover 80 years ago
A special ceremony will be held on an island off the south-west coast tomorrow to mark the exact day 80 years ago when the British handed over its fortifications to Free State forces.
Fort Berehaven, on Bere Island, was the second of three British Treaty Ports vacated by the British in 1938.
Prior to that, the British had garrisoned the island for a continuous 141 years.
It was of huge strategic value to the British as the fortifications and gun batteries built there protected the large Royal Navy fleet operating in the Atlantic and hunting for German U-boats on the western approaches.
The Treaty Ports were so named because agreement was reached following the War of Independence that the British would remain in control of them for strategic reasons.
British troops under a Major Clarke vacated the installation, travelling by train to Cork. After a few hours in the city they boarded the motor-vessel Innisfallen for Fishguard, Wales.
The last Treaty Port to be handed over was at Lough Swilly, between Derry and Donegal, on October 3, 1938. Extraordinarily, a Sgt O’Flynn, of the Royal Artillery, who hauled down the union flag, and Sgt McLaughlin, of the Free State army, who hoisted the Tricolour, were brothers-in-law.
Spike Island was the first to be handed back on July 11, 1938.
While the British had a garrison presence on Bere Island since 1797, they didn’t really beef up fortifications on it until 1898 when they compulsorily purchased the eastern end of it, clearing out many tenants in the process.
They built seven gun batteries at the Ardaragh Battery and the larger Lonehort Battery. The former’s guns faced northwards towards Castletownberehaven bay while the Lonehort battery faced eastwards towards the eastern approach to the bay.
Lonehort was developed further as a fort, later known as Fort Berehaven, with a 15ft-deep dry moat and protecting ammunition stores, barracks, and watchtowers.
A flag-raising ceremony will be conducted tomorrow by members of the Defence Forces on Bere Island at 11am, coinciding with the exact time the British handed it over. History experts will also give a talk on the events which led up to the handover.
