Bere Island Projects Group will hold their 2025 Military Heritage Festival this upcoming weekend, on June 21st and 22nd in the Drill Hall, Rerrin, which will host an exhibition and talks from a number of military historians.
The festival will open with a talk by Bere Island historian and author Ted O’Sullivan. Other speakers over the weekend include Noelle Grothier of the Irish Military Archives, Dr Rory Finnegan, Professor of Military History and Strategic Studies at Maynooth University, Michael Hall, author of The Untold Story of O’Sullivan Beare, Owen Foley, lecturer at Galway ATU, and Fachtna O’Donovan from the Beara Historical Society.
The festival will also include a guided tour of Lonehort Battery, a former WW1 gun battery by Barry Hanley.
Bere Island is said to be one of the best preserved military landscapes in Ireland, with a military history spanning four centuries.
Following the attempted French invasion of Bantry Bay in 1796, and realising the strategic location of the bay, the British built four Martello towers on Bere Island, two of which still 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 island’s military links continues to this day, with the Irish Defence Forces who use the island as a training base.
The festival is funded by the Heritage Council’s Heritage Organisations’ Support Fund and Cork County Council’s Commemorations Department.
For the full programme see www.bereisland.net.
