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History of the Martello Tower.
The
are two Martello towers in Skerries, one on Red Island and the other
on Shenick Island. The word Martello is a corruption of Mortella,
the name of a headland in Corsica.
It
was here that the original of these squat towers defended the approaches
to the Gulf of Fiorenza. In 1794 the British were helping the people
of Corsica, who rebelled against the French. Two British ships,
the "Fortitude" and the "Juno," bombarded the tower, and 1400 troops
with artillery were landed to help in the attack.
The
ships were disabled, and forced to retire with great loss of life.
The troops maintained their attack for a considerable time without
success. Finally a lucky shot started a fire in the tower, which
forced the soldiers inside to surrender.
The
English were amazed to find only thirty-three men inside, with only
three cannons. This incident greatly impressed the military authorities
in England, and in 1804 when they feared that Napoleon would invade
Ireland, they built a long chain of such towers on the eastern and
southern coasts of the country. They are all similar, being built
of solid stone, usually granite.
The
walls are nine feet thick. Each tower has a guardroom and an ammunition
store. There is a platform on top, on which three cannons were placed.
The
entrance to the tower is through a door, which was usually between
ten and fifteen feet from the ground. Each tower was built in a
position where one could see the two towers on either side. The
invasion that the British feared never happened .


CIANAN CLANCY
SKERRIES HOMEPAGE © 2003/2004 
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