Between July and August 1588, more than 300 ships sailed across the English Channel, fighting between Portland Bill and Ostend: 197 ships of the English Royal Navy faced 124 ships of the Spanish Gran Armada (the “Invincible”). The latter, which sailed from La Coruña, would continue its voyage in sight of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Scotland and Ireland, managing to return to Spain after defying for days, with damaged ships and exhausted crews, the extreme storm Great Gale that harassed it across the Atlantic. Under the fury of storms, downpours and swells, thirty-seven ships were wrecked in a scattered and discontinuous trail along the Scottish, Irish and English coasts, mourning the wounded, missing and dead at sea along with ships, animals and equipment, or buried on land. The survivors would then experience bloody repression (imprisonment or annihilation) by some of the local inhabitants or by the English troops as a whole in Hibernia, with only a minority escaping or escaping.

Such an exceptional war episode and its human tragedies have since given rise to and stimulated legends, eponyms, written memories, memorials, services and celebrations, shaping the historic voyage of the Invincible Armada into a mythical and epic environment in Europe, but especially latent until the 19th century in Ireland and Scotland, and also in England, where six dimensions of the episode (physical, folkloric, natural, scientific, creative and dynamising, institutional and popular), have forged a unique Spanish Armada atmosphere which, connected with the historical memory that survives in continental Europe (Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain and the Netherlands), together form a European Cultural Constellation around the tangible and intangible heritage of the historical experience of 1588. Its pan-European richness claims its recognition as a great "GREAT SPANISH Invincible ARMADA 1588" route.

AN EXCEPTIONAL CONSTELLATION 

Under the common denominator of the link to the historic event of 1588, the product of the sum of these cultural assets from the continental European territories, scattered across Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain and the United Kingdom, together with the British sites, constitutes a tangible and intangible ensemble of exceptional cultural character scattered across Europe.

The physical dimension is collected and displayed in museums, interpretation centres and sites. This is the case in the Netherlands, Spain, Scotland, England and Ireland.

The folkloric and immaterial dimension persists in Scotland (Fair Islands, Tobermory), Ireland (Clare Island, Galway, Dingle, Spanish Point, Grange, Lacada Point, Portballintrae), England (Torquay) and Spain (Madrid-Fuencarral).

The natural dimension is embodied both in urban centres that send out contingents and shipbuilders, as well as in land and maritime scenarios that have seen human decisions and actions. Thus, they can be seen in Spain); in Germany; in Croatia; in France; in Scotland; in Ireland and in England.

Scientific interpretation is evident in the field of archaeological surveys, with antecedents in Scotland (Portencross Castle, 1728 and Tobermory, 1906). In Ireland, it re-emerged in 1967 at the World Heritage site known as Giant's Path and, in particular, at the site known as Spanish Organ, Spanish Head or Port na Spaniagh, followed by salvage efforts the following year in the Blankets; in 1971 in Kinnagoe Bay; and in 1985 in the Streedagh area, where work resumed in 2014, the year in which an attempt was also made on the galleon St Mark's near Spanish Point.

The academic debate has been based on a variety of formats: international workshops, congresses and conferences in Cartagena, Dublin, Inishowen, London, Madrid and Sligo, and more locally in other parts of Ireland.

In the arts, pictorial expression is represented by 20th century Irish artists (Bernard Joseph McDonagh, Catrina O'Connor, George Campbell, and outdoor mural specialist Nik Pourdy); Spanish artists such as José Gartner de la Peña (1892) and Guillermo González de Aledo (1923); and English artists, such as the anonymous work on Queen Elizabeth I (16th century), John Singleton Copley (1740), Oswald Walters Brierley (1871), John Seymour Lucas (1889), Bernad Finegan Gribble (1935) and Roland Pym (1959).

There has also been ephemeral figurative art (straw boats, Valli Schafer, 2011), textile (Cornelius de Vroom with tapestries, 1601), cartographic (Robert Adam, 1589), in stone (sculptor Michael McTigue, 1988), wood (craftsman Michael Quirke, 2011), ceramics (Royal Doulton, 1988), engraving (Dutch plate of 1888 or those of John Pine in 1739 on the drawings of Clement Lempriere), jewellery and medals (Gerard van Bylaer for Middelburg Zeeland, 1588).

Music includes compositions by John O'Keefe (The Spanish Armada, 19th century), Shaun Davery (The Grainuaile Suite, 1985), Michael Rooney (De Cuellar Suite, 2011), Atlantic Ochestra Project (Cannons in Sea: the Music of the Guns, 2023), and Stuart King with Chroma (Armada 1588 in Shetland, 2023).

The scenic ones record Theatre Omnibus (Limerick, 1988), the poet Paul Durcan with the composer Micheal Ó Súilleabhaim in that year and his Nights in the Gardens of Clare; Colin Urwin and his The little Gold Ring (2022), or the group "Claíomh" in 2016.

The literary compositions are very varied: poems (Lope de Vega in the 16th century), W.H.K. Wright (1874), Henry Hamilton (1888), Rutland Bougthon (1901); theatrical dramas (Henry Hamilton); adventure literature (Hugh Allingham's, 1897), and ballads (Thomas Deloney, 1588; Eliza Postle or Douglas Sladen, 1888).

The General Post Office, the National Postal Museum and Royal Mail Stamps also dealt with philatelic art, as did the First Trust Bank in Northern Ireland in the numismatic field.

With regard to audiovisuals, several have been produced by the BBC and also by entities, such as the Spanish Armada Ireland (Armada 1588: Shipwreck & Survival, 2020) or the Central Folque (Cuellar: un nuevo viaje, 2011). As for films with a Spanish Armada theme, Fire Over England (1937), The Devil-Ship pirates (1964), The Monkey (2021) or Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle (2022) were recorded.

From an educational point of view, in addition to the museum's own activities for young people, there is the 1988 calendar dedicated to the Spanish Armada produced by the company Tara Mines, which was distributed in Irish schools. An informative virtual attraction has also been created, exhibited in Inishowen (Wrecks of the Armada, 2022) as part of the TIDE project (Interreg Atlantic Area Programme).

And what about gastronomy? Companies such as Sliabh Liag Distillers, Lacada Brewery or Lough Gill Lost Brewerey launched An Dúlamán Santa Ana Armada strength gin, the barley wine can Port na Spaniagh, identified by its identifying logo (the winged salamander), and the Lost Armada West Coast IPA. In addition, there are several hotel and sports businesses with trade names such as "Armada", "La Girona".

The dynamising aspect of the connection of the natural and artificial dimensions linked to the Great Armada has been appreciated through the protection of territorial areas (Spanish Point) and sites (Natural Heritage Area for Spanish Armada 1588 and Girona Historic Wreek), where there is no lack of traditional place names (Port na Spaniagh, 'Bones of the Spanish'). There are also specific signposts, such as the Irish Shipwreck Information Boards (Kinnagoe Bay, Streedagh Point, Spanish Armada Viewpoint, Spanish Point and Radharc Na Mblascoldi), which are part of the Wild Atlantic Way;  designs for hiking trails (De Cuellar's Trail, Sligo), and the construction of monuments and monoliths in symbolic places (the Hoe in Plymouth; Kinnagoe bay, the aforementioned Spanish Point, St Cuthbert's Church, Streedagh beach, among other places in Ireland), as well as designs in buildings (Palace Theatre, Plymouth) or streets dedicated to the Armada (Plymouth as a reference point). Popular dynamism is centred on remembrance events, some of which are considered frequent and consolidated, such as Armada Heritage Week and its Remembering The Armada (Grange), promoted by the Spanish Armada Ireland association (Grange, Sligo), or the Girona Gold Maritime Festival, Armada Arts Festival and Girona Evenign (Portballintrae Heritage Society).

A COMMON EUROPEAN MARITIME AND TERRESTRIAL CULTURAL SITE

The legacy of the historical event of 1588 constitutes a common pan-European insular, peninsular and continental nexus, whose exceptional cultural essence represents an expression of transnational identity that deserves to be dealt with institutionally (dissemination, signposting, dynamisation), and materialised in a route connecting the territories linked to the common experience of the Great Armada. The instrument: a virtual and physical network to facilitate the inclusive and accessible transit of citizens and groups interested in any of the dimensions inherent to the memory of Europe: history, folklore, arts, gastronomy, underwater archaeology, cartography; the human, economic and military connection routes on land and at sea; naval and war construction and technology; port, defensive and palace architecture; and political, military and commercial organisations. The objective: to reinforce the feeling of shared supranational identity, through the understanding of the past and the admiration of the memory and its vestiges, stimulating positive encounters that enrich current coexistence, appreciating European cultural diversity, stimulating inclusive and positive social relations among citizens, and increasing virtual and physical knowledge of the different parts of Europe that were linked to the voyage of the Armada.  

For all these reasons, and given the lack of a connecting route of the European legacy of the Great Spanish Armada 1588, the joint action should lead to the establishment of a new great transnational itinerary in the European Union of a cultural nature, animated by a central dynamising node. It would thus serve as an axis for the recognition, promotion and protection of a current pan-European tangible and intangible heritage constellation, connecting citizens, communities, mentalities and states on the basis of an already mythical historical event: the wake of the Armada's voyage.