Qualla: Treaty Ports

Treaty Ports: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zello, CC BY-SA 3.0. On 11 July 1938, a Union Jack came down for the last time over Spike Island in Cork Harbour. Sixteen years after Ireland had become a Free State, the Royal Navy was finally handing back the last of its bases on Irish soil. Eamon de Valera and Frank Aiken were on the dock to take possession. In London, Winston Churchill stood in the House of Commons and called the handover a 'folly.' Within a year, Britain was at war and the Atlantic convoys had to swing 200 miles further north because the harbour at Cobh - which had been a Royal Navy refuelling base for a century - was now neutral. The Treaty Ports were three small dots on the map of Ireland that ended up changing the geography of the Second World War.

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Image: Zello | CC BY-SA 3.0

Treaty Ports: What the Treaty Took

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zello, CC BY-SA 3.0. When the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed on 6 December 1921, it gave the 26 counties their independence but left a few sharp things tucked into the small print. Article 7 reserved three deep-water harbours to the United Kingdom for naval use: Berehaven at Castletownbere on the sout...

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Image: Zello | CC BY-SA 3.0

Treaty Ports: Sixteen Years of Awkwardness

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zello, CC BY-SA 3.0. From 1922 onward, the bases were increasingly uncomfortable for both sides. Irish foreign policy was moving toward neutrality - by the 1930s de Valera was a vocal champion of the League of Nations and a position outside great-power blocs. Royal Navy ships flying the Union Jack an...

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Image: Zello | CC BY-SA 3.0

Treaty Ports: Three Handovers, Three Months

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zello, CC BY-SA 3.0. The actual handovers came in quick succession that autumn. Spike Island was first, on 11 July 1938. The Times of London reported it with photographs of British families packing up and Irish dignitaries inspecting the fortress. On 29 September, Castletownbere and the batteries on ...

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Image: Zello | CC BY-SA 3.0

Treaty Ports: Churchill's Folly

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zello, CC BY-SA 3.0. Almost nobody in Britain noticed at the time. Churchill was one of the few MPs who spoke against the handover. He told the Commons it was an 'astonishing triumph' for de Valera, and asked whether it would not be better to pay the £10 million Ireland was offering and keep a legal ...

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Image: Zello | CC BY-SA 3.0

Treaty Ports: What's Left to See

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zello, CC BY-SA 3.0. All three sites are open in some form today. Spike Island in Cork Harbour, the most accessible, became Europe's Leading Tourist Attraction in 2017 - boats run from Cobh and the star-shaped fortress, prison cells and gun emplacements can be walked through. Fort Davis at Whitegate ...

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Image: Zello | CC BY-SA 3.0