The current cultural climate is intensified within the prison environment, where issues such as addiction, housing instability, family breakdown, and mental health challenges frequently intersect. These overlapping pressures create complex conditions that shape daily life for prisoners while also increasing the demands placed on those supporting rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
The 2026 project brings together mapmaking and mask fabrication as a way of exploring prisoners’ memories and lived experiences of people and places. Working across ceramics, textiles, and pyrography, and drawing inspiration from artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Paula Rego, and Grayson Perry, the works engage with historic maps of Cork city and contemporary craft-based figuration.
The resulting characters operate as playful and often comedic expressions of escapism and imagination, developed through energetic and expressive mark-making. While deliberately exaggerated and absurd, they carry a strong sense of humour and inventiveness. Together, they reflect the resourcefulness and creativity that emerge within shared prison environments, offering a grounded interpretation of artistic expression under constraint.
Altered Images is a group exhibition from the CETB Education Unit in Cork Prison.
It brings together four elements of work developed across different classes and collaborative projects.
The exhibition is on view in the former prison cells at Spike Island.
Each room tells its own story, revealing the diversity of education within the prison. Every year, the CETB Education Unit in Cork Prison is proud to share the wide range of work created in partnership with Spike Island and other cultural collaborators.
We hope you enjoy the experience as much as we enjoyed the journey.
The Aud: “special, secret and dangerous mission” and The Aud: Submerged History is a new two-room exhibition presented at Spike Island, Cork Harbour, marking 110 years since the 1916 Aud mission.
Developed by the Spike Island Curatorial Team, the exhibition examines the covert German arms operation carried out aboard the SS Libau, disguised as the Aud, and its connection to the Easter Rising. Drawing on new research, archival material, personal recollections, and contributions from descendants of the crew, the project explores both the historical significance of the mission and its more personal dimensions.
The exhibition also shows the vessel through underwater photography, situating the wreck within the maritime history of Cork Harbour.
Presented across two gallery spaces, the exhibition combines narrative panels, artefacts, photography, film, archival material, underwater survey documentation, and sound to create a reflective, research-led visitor experience.
Exhibition photography by Jed Niezgoda
THE AUD “special, secret and dangerous mission”
This gallery focuses on the planning, execution, interception, and consequences of the Libau/Aud operation in 1916.
The exhibition includes newly displayed artefacts, historical photographs, archival material, and personal accounts connected to the crew and their imprisonment on Spike Island and later internment in Britain.
Exhibition photography by Jed Niezgoda
THE AUD
SUBMERGED HISTORY
This gallery explores the story of the Aud following its sinking in Cork Harbour and examines the vessel as part of Ireland’s underwater cultural heritage.
Underwater photography of the wreck presents the sea as an archival space, where the material traces of 1916 remain suspended between preservation, loss, and memory.
Additional photographs of artefacts from the Aud reflect contemporary artistic responses to the vessel and its historical legacy.
Project coordination, research and curation by Dorota Gubbins
Exhibition installation: Michael Jones, Arkadiusz Maciak, Ben Cuddihy
Production & print: Flanagan Prints, Youghal / Ewa Rybka
Special thanks are extended to Anthony O’Mahony for sharing research material and archaeological survey work relating to the wreck, and to Derek Bolton for his underwater photography and film contributions.
Huge thanks are also extended to Fred and John Schmitz, grandsons of Friedrich Schmitz, one of the crew members, for generously sharing family recollections, photographs, and privately recorded footage documenting the recovery of the Aud anchors in 2012, accompanied by original music composed by John Schmitz.
Thanks are also due to Jennifer Meyer Husson, granddaughter of Christian Meyer, for sharing family recollections and photographs.
We were delighted to present photographs by Barbara Diener, recipient of the 2025 Sample-Studios Spike Island Residency Award.
Appreciation is also extended to the Spike Island Volunteers for sharing an archival photograph connected to the crew’s imprisonment on Spike Island, and for supporting the development of narrative material relating to Roger Casement and his involvement in the mission.
We are very thankful to Flanagan Prints for once again working successfully with us on producing and printing the exhibition materials.
Grateful thanks to Conor Nelligan, Cork County Council Heritage Officer, for his continued support throughout this project.
This project is supported by Cork County Council and the Heritage Council under the County Heritage Plan Funding 2026
In Liberated Paradox, Thomas Hendy explores freedom as a contradiction rather than a certainty. The work is shaped by personal experience — growing up in a chaotic but creative household, resisting imposed systems and later living on the margins through addiction, homelessness and imprisonment.
These experiences challenged the idea of freedom as something society promises but rarely delivers. In contrast, moments of isolation and survival often revealed a different kind of freedom, one rooted in thought rather than circumstance.
Through graphite drawing and symbolic imagery, Hendy reflects these tensions and questions where freedom truly exists.
Thomas Hendy
Thomas is an award-winning, self-taught artist based in Kells, County Meath.
Working primarily in rich, matt graphite, his practice centres on highly detailed drawing informed by lived experience. Through a meticulous and intuitive process, Hendy gives visual voice to emotional and psychological states that language often fails to convey.
His work explores themes of addiction, control and survival. It traces a journey from a past shaped by dependency, homelessness and incarceration to a present defined by resilience and renewal. Motivated by the narratives embedded within each piece, Hendy amplifies voices from the margins of society, inviting viewers to reconsider perceptions of addiction, mental health and economic struggle.
Spike Island has a unique and specific history compared to the rest of Ireland.
It has had a British Military presence from 1779 to 1938 – a one hundred and fifty-nine-year span that has had to have a major influence on its residents and that of Cork Harbour over that period. From 1847 to 1883 it became a famine era prison but still had a garrison presence on the island during that time.
Even though Spike Island was a military establishment the resident children had a great freedom on the island and were able to play and wander anywhere they wanted. Spike was their world, and they were very much insulated from the outside – if they did travel it may be one day a week for a couple of hours to Cork city. Up on the War Department launches and back again a couple of hours later. Most children who were brought up on Spike Island never forgot their idyllic life there for the rest of their lives. Many who had to leave Spike and move to Cobh and elsewhere found it all very unsettling.
A terrible period happened for children when they put a prison there in 1847. Whence before and after the prison these children had the freedom of the island, now it became an island of incarceration, cruelty and devastation.
The exhibition tells some of these stories. Although all the stories are based on historical facts – like a good Hollywood movie certain embellishment and artistic license has been taken.
An Exhibition by Barbara Diener – Culture Night 2025
Friday 19 September
5pm-7pm
Where Silence Settlesis the result of this year’s artist residency at Spike Island, presented in the atmospheric Punishment Block as part of Culture Night this September. Developed by Cork-based artist Barbara Diener, the exhibition continues a five-year partnership between Spike Island and Sample-Studios, supporting site-responsive work that engages with the island’s layered history.
Diener brings a contemplative lens to Spike Island’s complex legacy. Her practice explores memory, time and obsolescence—qualities echoed in the island’s crumbling walls and overlooked narratives. Working with archival materials, installations, and both still and moving images, she constructs a visual narrative that traces what remains after silence has settled.
The exhibition draws from pivotal moments in the island’s past, including the story of The Aud and its connection to the Easter Rising. Diener’s haunting underwater video work and photographs of abandoned, overgrown architecture—often in areas not normally accessible to the public—reflect how nature slowly reclaims places marked by human ambition and conflict, offering a quiet meditation on loss, transformation and renewal.
Visitors are invited to engage during an artist talk accompanying the exhibition, providing further insight into the process and work on display. A short guided tour will take place at the beginning of the event.
This project is the result of a unique collaboration between Crawford Art Gallery and Cork Prison. The initiative goes beyond simply displaying finished artworks; it reveals the powerful transformation that occurs when creativity crosses boundaries.
Inspired by the Crawford Art Gallery’s collection, the workshops encourage participants to explore new forms of expression and connect their inner lives with the outside world. Through expert guidance—combining artistic skill and historical context—the men develop creative confidence, self-worth and a meaningful way to share their stories beyond prison walls.
The With // Out exhibition showcases these works, highlighting themes of identity, freedom and connection. It invites visitors to witness how art can transcend barriers and reveal the resilience of the human spirit, even within confinement.
For over a decade, Spike Island has worked closely with the Cork Prison Education Unit, resulting in a series of exhibitions uniquely presented within its preserved prison spaces. As a former place of incarceration, Spike Island provides an authentic and powerful backdrop that deepens the impact of the work on display. This year’s initiative marks another compelling chapter in this ongoing collaboration.
Spike Island is proud to host RECCE, an exhibition created by students and art teachers from the Education Unit in Cork Prison (Cork ETB). This exhibition continues a meaningful collaboration between Spike Island and the Cork Prison Education Unit, now in its eleventh year.
The word recce, derived from military slang for reconnaissance, evokes close observation and exploration. True to its name, this exhibition unfolds in two reciprocal parts, offering a visual narrative shaped by close inspection, memory and interpretation. It showcases the remarkable depth and diversity of creativity nurtured within the prison’s educational programmes.
The artworks on display in one of the cells at Spike Island are the culmination of a collaborative group project undertaken during the 2024–2025 academic year. For several years, the ceramic and textile classes in the Education Unit have worked closely together, producing mixed-media pieces—wall hangings and sculptures—that interweave personal stories and shared memory.
This year’s theme explores the natural world of Ireland. Each student selected a favourite wild animal or plant and expressed their ideas through personal sculptures or two-dimensional textile works. Using Visual Thinking Strategies, students observed and interpreted their environment—drawing on memory and imagination to create, even within the confines of prison life.
The resulting works are imaginative, often humorous and always deeply personal—blending the representational with the fantastical to form a striking exhibition.
Since 2021, Spike Island has partnered with Sample-Studios and, more recently, Sirius Arts Centre to support a series of thoughtful, site-responsive exhibitions. These collaborations have brought contemporary artists into dialogue with the island’s charged history and unique landscape, with the Lord Mayor’s Pavilion in Cork city serving as a key presenting venue.
Barbara Diener is the ninth artist to participate in this ongoing programme. During her residency, she will immerse herself in the layered histories of Spike Island. Her work will bring together archival artefacts, sculpture and both still and moving images created on and around the island.
Diener’s approach is deeply responsive to place. On Spike Island, she has been especially drawn to its complex architecture and the traces left behind by those who once lived or were held there. One story in particular, the covert 1916 voyage of The Aud, a German ship sent to aid the Easter Rising, resonated strongly, bridging her ongoing interest in German history and hidden military operations. This thread connects with her earlier project The Rocket’s Red Glare, which examined the life and legacy of Wernher von Braun, revealing the moral ambiguities in how history is told and remembered.
A recurring theme throughout Diener’s practice is the quiet persistence of nature in the face of abandonment. On Spike Island, overgrown barracks, crumbling walls, and plant life forcing its way through cracks become metaphors for endurance and transformation. These confined yet living spaces feel simultaneously claustrophobic and resilient suggesting that even in places built for control, something wild and quietly hopeful, endures.
This partnership is supported by the Arts Council, Cork County Council and Cork City Council.
The Aud: “special, secret and dangerous mission” and The Aud: Submerged History is a new two-room exhibition presented at Spike Island, Cork Harbour, marking 110 years since the 1916 Aud mission.
Barbara Diener is the ninth artist to participate in this ongoing programme. During her residency, she will immerse herself in the layered histories of Spike Island. Her work will bring together archival artefacts, sculpture and both still and moving images created on and around the island.