Viking Long Boats set to join traditional hookers for Claddagh Festival

Two Viking Long Boats will ensure a distinctively Nordic feel to the inaugural Claddagh Traditional Boat Festival, which will run from Wednesday to Sunday, May 24 to 28, in the city’s Claddagh Basin.

The annual regatta, organised by Bádóirí an Ċladaiġ (The Claddagh Boatmen) has been expanded this year to include the inaugural Claddagh Traditional Boat Festival.

In addition to the Viking Long Boats, there will be 20 Galway Hookers and Gleoiteógs on display at Claddagh Basin for the duration of the Festival – including five Galway Hookers and Gleoiteógs built and refurbished by Bádóirí an Ċladaiġ.

This will be the first opportunity to see so many of these traditional vessels, all in full sail, gathered at the Claddagh Basin since 1920, according to the Claddagh Boatmen.

These talented boat-builders are on track to complete 14 of the iconic vessels, representing the 14 Galway Tribes, in time for 2020 when Galway will be European Capital of Culture.

Meanwhile, the two Viking Long Boats and their crew, who will travel from Ardglass in Northern Ireland, are joining their boat-making colleagues in the West as guests and invaders from May 24-28.

The Claddagh Basin will also host a Viking village for the festival. A full Viking invasion of Salthill is planned for Saturday, May 27, weather permitting.

This festival is liaising with 14 primary schools in Galway City, Kinvara and along the Connemara Coast, allowing them to ‘adopt’ one of the traditional boats being moored in the Basin. The students will learn the history of these boats and about the boating traditions of the Claddagh and Vikings. They will then take a trip to the Claddagh Basin to see the boats for themselves.

More than 150 primary schoolchildren in Viking and Medieval Galway costume will, with the invaders from Ardglass Vikings, stage an ‘attack’ and a ‘defence’ scenario on the streets of Galway, from Lynch’s Castle, down Quay Street to the Spanish Arch on the Thursday at 12pm, Friday at 12pm and Saturday at 3pm. There will be a further ‘invasion’ in Salthill on the Saturday, if the weather allows.

The Festival will also showcase Galway’s strong tradition of Irish music. With the assistance of local branches of Comhaltas Ceoltóiri Éireann, there will be singers and dancers on the city’s streets, and trad sessions throughout the area.

Galway’s finest music and singing talent will also be on display on the quayside from Wednesday to Friday evening.

This festival demonstrates the vision and voluntary work by one Galway community to keep traditional crafts alive.

The five traditional Gleoiteógs and Hookers have been built, preserved or re crafted in Galway by the Bádóirí over the last number of years. This project is supported and funded by the Department of Social Protection.

Galway City Council and the Galway and Roscommon Education and Training Board (GRETB) are also financial supporters of this initiative and festival, with the GRETB engaged in specific training and education in the marine sector.

The Latin Quarter, Galway’s Westend and The Village Salthill business groups are on board as anchor sponsors of the festival.

Support for the 14 key traditional boats being built for 2020 will also come from individual Galway City Centre and Salthill businesses.