BERE Island Projects Group will hold its 2026 Military Festival over the weekend of Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st June.

The annual event in the Drill Hall, Rerrin, now in its fourth year, features an exhibition on the island’s military heritage and talks from a number of military experts.

Bere Island was once one of the most fortified locations in Western Europe and was one of Ireland’s former Treaty Ports.

The historic Drill Hall, constructed in 1915, was used by the British Admiralty for drill practice and at one time as a cinema for both the military and islanders.

Bere Island, located at the entrance to Bantry Bay, has a military heritage which spans four centuries, with the island said to be one of the best preserved military landscapes in Ireland. 

Following the attempted invasion of Bantry Bay in 1796 by a French Armada and realising the strategic location of Bere Island as an entry point to Ireland, , the British built four Martello Towers, two of which still remain. 

In 1898 the British War Department issued a compulsory purchase order for the eastern end of the island.

This area became known locally as ‘inside the red line’. Islanders treated ‘crossing the red line’ as crossing an international border, which in effect it was.

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 will feature an exhibition of military photographs and artefacts along with talks from military experts including Ted O’Sullivan, Noelle Grothier, Dr Rory Finnegan, Owen Foley, Tom O’Neill and Barry Hanley.

For the full schedule see www.bereisland.heritagecork.org