Let’s get on board with the Claddagh boatmen!

Double Vision with Charlie Adley

As 2020 Capital of Culture approaches, there’s much discussion about what is and is not Galway culture – but about Galway’s boats there can be no debate.

Take a look at artist Eamon O’Doherty’s Quincentennial Sails sculpture in Eyre Square: the essence of Galway culture, those sails express the vital relationship between Galway and its unique boats.

Nothing more wholly represents Galway culture. History and poetry combine in those black hulls and russet sails; in that blend of bay, boat and Burren.

Despite recently facing extinction, hookers are now being restored and sailed once more.

Thanks to community group Bádóirí an Cladaig teo – the Claddagh Boatmen – a new generation are being taught how to build hookers; how to sail them; how to navigate and maintain them.

With centuries of expertise in their genes, this group of Claddagh men decided to revive Galway’s maritime tradition, and on the way gained the support of our entire community.

After restoring their first boat in 2009, the Boatmen nurtured a vision of hookers moored from Spanish Arch to Jury’s hotel. On Culture Night this year, six restored hookers were moored along that wall.

They had made their dream a reality.

As group secretary Peter Connolly explained, that vision has now grown.

“The Regatta has been a phenomenal success over the last four years, and May 2017 will see the launch of our new initiative, in support of 2020. The Navigational Trust has allowed the use of the Claddagh Basin, so the sailing communities of Claddagh, Connemara and Kinvara will come together to showcase 14 boats in full sail, for an entire week, subject to weather conditions.

“Each boat will carry an emblem of a Tribe of Galway, and they’ll sail together over the next four summers, in the build-up to 2020. We’ve also invited two 40 foot Viking boats from Bangor, while the 47ft Chicago-built hooker ‘Naoimh Bairbre’ sailed across the Atlantic, to be left in the caretakership of Bádóirí an Cladaig teo for ten years, for training and tours on the bay, with all income to be reinvested into our project.

To read Charlie’s column in full, please see this week’s Galway City Tribune.